OWENSBORO – It was déjà vu for the Warren East softball team, which got a walk-off sacrifice bunt from Hailey Hymer to beat Ryle 3-2 in the Owensboro Health/KHSAA State Softball Tournament on Thursday at Jack C. Fisher Park.

Warren East (30-4) had a pair of one-run leads slip away before winning in the same fashion as they prevailed in the opener of the 2015 state tournament. The walk-off bunt scored Kya Elkin and sent East into a rematch with unbeaten East Carter at 9 a.m. Friday.

“I was having flashbacks while sitting there putting on the sign,” Warren East coach Philip McKinney said. “We put it on the first pitch and I don’t even know if it was a foul ball or she took it for a ball, but the corners didn’t creep in so I was like, ‘Are they really going to give us this run?’ Hailey gets it down … I was just wondering if Kya could get there in time.

“… I wanted to push her actually a little bit down the line to get in there, but it was a well-executed play by the girls.”

It was a back-and-forth affair all night, with Warren East able to strike the final blow.

After the first eight were retired, Shelby Trent broke through with a bloop double down the left-field line and scored on an RBI single by Hymer to give Warren East a 1-0 lead in the third.

Ryle (23-7) tied it 1-1 when Maclai Branson homered to center in the top of the fourth, but Katie Gardner answered with her own solo shot to center to put Warren East back in front.

Ryle rallied to tie again in the sixth. Branson was intentionally walked and Gardner walked the next two to load the bases. Gardner worked out of the jam and Warren East couldn’t score in the bottom of the sixth, despite getting runners at the corners with no outs.

Warren East turned to Emma Markham in relief in the seventh and the eighth-grader allowed a hit to set up a matchup against Branson with a runner on first and two outs. Markham won the battle, getting Branson to ground out weakly to first to end the inning.

“Could you imagine what you were doing in eighth grade?” McKinney said. “I guarantee you I wasn’t facing someone going to the University of Kentucky and that their dad played for the Cincinnati Reds – trying to get them out. (It was an) unbelievable job.

“We were going to feed her nothing but change-ups inside and if it happened to walk her, then we would walk her. What an unbelievable job by Markham.”

Elkin started the rally in the bottom of the seventh with a ground-rule double to left-center. Trent bunted Elkin to third, setting the stage for Hymer – who said she was nervous when the game began but wasn’t nervous when asked to bunt.

“I was thinking just do my job,” Hymer said. “I was excited to score the run and win the game.”

After taking the first pitch for a ball, Hymer dropped a bunt between the catcher and pitcher that allowed Elkin to slide in safely for the game winner.

“It was very good because we are moving closer to get to our goal to Saturday,” Elkin said. “We’ve been in harder situations, so it prepared us for this game. It helped a lot.”

Markham earned the win with a scoreless inning of relief. Gardner allowed two runs and two hits in six innings, striking out 13.

Warren East finished with nine hits – two each from Gardner and Elkin.

Warren East will now face unbeaten East Carter on Friday. A win would allow the Lady Raiders a chance to rest until 3 p.m., but a loss would mean they’d have to win three games to get a chance to play Saturday.

East Carter, led by pitcher and likely Miss Softball Montana Fouts, beat Warren East 2-1 in nine innings May 18.

“Here we go again,” McKinney said. “We will get up, get after them, and see what happens.”

RHS 000 101 0 – 2

WEHS 001 100 1 – 3

WP: Markham. LP: Bishop.{&end}