With the spring high school sports season at its end, the LINK nky Team of the Season (TOS) sponsored by Ortho Cincy Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine winner is the Holy Cross softball team.
The Indians were one of eight teams during the spring season that won LINK nky Team of the Week and came away as the TOS, after compiling over half of the total votes with 25,671. We received over 48,000 votes!
They will be awarded a commemorative plaque and a student-athlete of their choice will be awarded a $500 scholarship, thanks to OrthoCincy in sponsoring the award and plaque. The Indians will be presented the plaque and scholarship at a later date.
Holy Cross is now in the running with the Team of the Season for the fall (Bellevue football) and Team of the Season for the winter (Highlands Swim and Dive) for Team of the Year. Voting will start on that Wednesday.
It was a storybook season for the Holy Cross softball team, winning their first ever fast pitch softball regional title. They knocked off three district champions in the regional tournament in doing so, the last against three-time defending champ Highlands in the region championship game.
They finished the year with an 18-13 record and claimed the 9th Region All “A” softball title as well. The Indians went 14-4 against 9th Region opponents and 5-2 against 35th District foes, finishing runner-up in the district. Their season concluded in the first round of the Clark’s Pump-n-Shop KHSAA state tournament against Harrison County.
According to the stats listed on the KHSAA website, as a team they hit .300 at the plate this season and were headlined by primary pitcher Evie Thomas who went 16-11 on the year with a 2.84 ERA. Thomas struck out 221 batters on the season and led the team in batting average at .410 and RBI with 25.
Other standouts at the plate include Madison Urlage, who led the team in hits with 36 and was second in RBI with 19. Paige Lachmann, Zoey Baker and Urlage all hit over .300 and collected at least 28 hits. Jordyn Reiselman and Zakyah Ryan also collected at least 20 hits. Reiselman and Suzette Klaiss were third on the team with 17 RBI.
The unlikely hero of the region tournament was Kayla Fledderman when her grand slam in the seventh inning turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead which would be the final score to clinch the title.
Not only did Holy Cross set a precedent for their program, but it gave small schools in Northern Kentucky hope, that a region title can be won by a smaller school and not the Highlands, Ryle’s, Notre Dame’s, Dixie Heights’ or Boone County’s of the region.
Congratulations to our other nominees as well: Campbell County softball, Ludlow softball, Bellevue baseball, Villa Madonna baseball, Ryle baseball, Ryle boys volleyball and Boone County boys’ track and field.
This puts an end to our Team of The Week and Team of the Season campaign for the 2024-25 calendar school year, but wait…there’s still one last vote! Team of the Year voting will begin later this week! Stay tuned for that.