Until next softball season, a new trophy has found a home at Cooper High School
The Kentucky-shaped trophy, crafted from a bourbon barrel, bears a black plate reading “Battle of Union” along with the logos of Cooper and Ryle. It commemorates the first annual Battle of Union in softball and now belongs to the Lady Jaguars, who defeated their city and district rivals, the Lady Raiders, 25-11 in five innings at Cooper Monday evening.
“It makes that much more fun,” senior captain Ainsley Scroggie said. “You’re working for some incentive, something that you get to keep and put in the trophy case at your school. It’s an awesome incentive and I think it made us push that much harder to win.”
There were bragging rights, district seeding implications for the 33rd District tournament, and a brand-new trophy on the line, adding even more significance. But Ryle has been a thorn in Cooper’s side, having swept the series last season and won seven of eight matchups since the 2022 33rd District title game.
On Monday, everything finally went the Lady Jaguars’ way. They scored their most runs in a single game since putting up 26 on April 8, 2017, while collecting 19 hits.
Putting up 11 runs isn’t easy either, as the Lady Raiders paired it with 12 hits, but Cooper’s offense was unstoppable.
“I told the girls, believe it or not, I expected this game to be 25-24 because Ryle can hit,” Cooper head coach Lee Patsel said. “They can flat-out hit, and so we were expecting a slobberknocker. I told them, ‘Look, they’re gonna score four in an inning, we’ve got to score five. That’s just it.'”
If you looked at the box score, it would be easier to find who didn’t have a hit.
Ryle’s Kiley Patterson led off the game with a double in the first inning, helping the Lady Raiders score four runs, just as Patsel had predicted, while Cooper managed two. Ryle added three more in the second to Cooper’s one, but the Lady Jaguars blew the game open in the third and fourth innings with 12 and 10 runs.
Every Cooper player recorded a hit, led by Scroggie with four hits, three RBIs, and four runs. Four players, including Scroggie, hit doubles: Kaitlyn Furnish (three hits, five RBIs, and a triple), Sadie James, and eighth-grader Kinley Johnson.
Three home runs were hit, including two from eighth-grader Kayla Dalcour, who went three-for-four with four RBIs.
“She has it in her to be exceptional with her bat,” Patsel said. “I don’t look at her as an eighth grader, but as a weapon. She sees the ball well, swings angry, and her timing is impeccable.”
Dalcour’s first homer sparked a scoring avalanche, and immediately after, junior Alivia Scott blasted a ball over the fence.
“Kayla hit one right in front of me, so I was excited, excited for her,” Scott said.
Scott, a starter on Cooper’s basketball team, has faced the Lady Raiders many times on both the hardwood and the diamond.
“It’s a lot different both ways, but when you go up against Ryle, you know it’s going to be a tough game in both sports,” Scott said. “They always give us good competition.”
The Lady Raiders managed another four-run inning in the fourth, but Cooper’s explosive offense ended the game in the fifth after the run rule was applied.
That competition isn’t over for the season. Cooper and Ryle will meet again April 15 at Ryle.
“Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you and it got us today,” Ryle head coach David Meier said. “It’s one game in a 36-game regular season and one of six district seeding games. We’ll make improvements and get better every day.”
With Conner defeating Boone County in Hebron, Cooper and Ryle are both 1-0 in district play, while Ryle joins Boone at 0-1.
MORE PHOTOS: Provided by Charles Bolton
LADY JAGUARS 25, LADY RAIDERS 11
RYLE — 4 3 0 4 0 x x — 11-12-3
COOPER — 2 1 12 10 x x x — 25-19-1
RBI — (C) Furnish 5, Dalcour 4, James 3, Johnson 3, Mack 3, Scott 3, Scroggie 3, Spraker (R) Broussard 4, Rechtin 3, Roland 2, Hirshey, Patsel
2B — (C) Furnish, James, Johnson, Scroggie (R) Broussard, Ki. Patterson, Patsel, Roland
3B — (C) Furnish
HR — (C) Dalcour 2, Scott (R) Rechtin
WP — Mack. LP — Patsel.
Records: Cooper 3-1, Ryle 5-3