If ever a team knew the dangers of a late lead, it’s Warren East.

Rewind to 2017.

The Lady Raiders led South Warren 2-0 with two outs left to snag, but the Spartans rallied to win. It’s a game coach Philip McKinney still thought about throughout the 2018 season.

Fast forward to Friday. McKinney stands on the third-base line watching the Lady Raiders build a cushion hit by hit. Cue the déjà vu.

“After last year, you don’t have enough,” McKinney said. “No lead is big enough.”

Act II of the heavyweight region championship fight went punch for punch. Grand slam for home runs. Pitching strategy vs. another. South Warren and Warren East brought it all.

Innings felt more like rounds of a fight, and Warren East delivered quite the final blow.

The Lady Raiders took an early hit and got back up with a beatdown, scoring nine unanswered runs to defeat South Warren 11-5 in the Region 4 championship game Friday night at the WKU Softball Complex.

Warren East is back in the state tournament for the first time since 2015 and will play Region 9 champion Ryle on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Owensboro.

“After being defeated last year, we had to come out and give it our all and get back to state,” junior pitcher Katie Gardner said. “We came back and hit like we were supposed to and we got the runs we needed.”

Warren East (29-4) overcame a three-run deficit built early thanks to a South Warren (22-8) grand slam from Jessica Bush in the bottom of the third. But the Lady Raiders kept fighting and took advantage of a pitching change in the sixth to break open the floodgates.

Gardner’s two-run double in the sixth pushed Warren East back into the lead at 7-5, then four runs in the top of the seventh sealed the ticket back to state.

South Warren allowed the final two runs to score on an error, one of three committed in the final inning.

“They did (break),” South Warren coach Kelly Reynolds said of her team allowing a nine-run rally. “At the point when Jess hits the grand slam and we go out, that was a huge, huge bonus for us. Then little things happened. They started pecking away at the bat and scoring some runs and we just kind of got down and it was hard to go back.”

South Warren struck first, with Bush reaching on an error when center fielder Lucy Patterson let the ball bounce out of her glove on the catch attempt. Bush advanced to second and scored on Madison Stumbo’s shallow hit in the left-center gap.

Warren East responded in a big way. Jeyda Bays led off the second with a home run to center field, then Gardner sent one to the exact same spot two pitches later to push Warren East into the lead 2-1.

Warren East looked to strike again with two hits in the top of the third, but Bays grounded into a double play to hold the one-run gap.

Then it was South Warren’s turn to go yard.

Alexis Helderman, Lauren Martin and Abbey Mills set the table with singles, then Bush brought them all home with a grand slam just a few feet inside the left-field foul pole, putting the Spartans in the lead at 5-2.

At that moment, memories returned. Last year’s region final only intensified the rivalry between the county’s power programs. Warren East led by two runs with two outs left in the game, but the Spartans rallied and used Shelby Nunn’s two-run, walk-off hit to win the Spartans a second straight region title.

South Warren took both regular-season games, then Warren East returned the favor by beating the Spartans in the District 14 tournament last week.

“Had a little déjà vu in the same dugout, same spot calling pitches,” McKinney said. “Jess hit that out and I thought, ‘Son of a gun, are we going to go like this again?’ ”

McKinney pulled Gardner, who allowed five straight hits in the third, for eighth-grader Emma Markham. She loaded the bases on walks but got out of the jam by forcing Madison Stumbo to fly out to right field.

“They were hitting (Gardner) and fouling off the rise ball,” McKinney said. “Even the ones they hit to the outfield they drove pretty good. It’s just time to make a change. Think about Emma, she goes in there as an eighth-grader. That lead they had could’ve exploded to five, six or seven runs. She held them right there for that one inning and that one inning is going to be forgotten by a lot of people, but that was a big inning for that kid.”

Warren East chipped away in the fifth with Olivia Price sent a two-out, two-run double into left-center to bring the Lady Raiders within 5-4.

A pitching change and patience paid off in the sixth.

Reynolds took out Enlow and replaced her with freshman Emily Reynolds after Enlow gave up a walk and a bunt single. Lucy Patterson poked a single into left field to bring in the tying run. Two batters later, Katie Gardner sent a two-run double into center field to put Warren East back in front.

Ashton Akins added insurance with the Lady Raiders’ third home run of the night to the same spot over center field to build a three-run cushion.

The Spartans broke down with three errors in the top of the seventh, using the last error on the shortstop to bring in two runs for the final six-run margin.

“It’s a battle and it’s unbelievable how these two programs have been connected in high-level softball,” McKinney said. “The plays they made, they weren’t lucky plays. The level of high school softball was unreal.”

Warren East belted out 16 hits, led by three from Olivia Price and two from Gardner, who finished with three RBIs.

“It feels amazing,” Akins said. “We came out hitting the ball. Even after Jess Bush hit that grand slam, we didn’t drop or anything. It was good on our part. We came out and hit the ball great tonight.”

WE 020 023 4 – 11 16 1

SW 104 000 0 – 5 10 4

WP: Gardner. LP: Reynolds.{&end}