Katie Gardner has practically grown up on a softball diamond in Bowling Green.

From starting as a young girl in local leagues to her time at Warren East and Western Kentucky, Gardner has had a career full of honors – ranging from Miss Softball her senior season of high school to Conference USA Pitcher of the Year her senior season at WKU.

Her latest honor comes on Saturday night when Gardner is officially inducted into the Kentucky Prep Softball Hall of Fame during a ceremony at WKU’s Knicely Conference Center. Gardner is part of the 2025 class that includes Mallory Peyton Cook from Madisonville-North Hopkins and Lindsey Carroll Perkins from McCracken County.

“It is a really big honor,” Gardner said. “I was really surprised when I received a text about it, but I am glad they chose me to be inducted along with the two other ladies inducted with me. It’s really exciting and I am grateful they are putting me in the hall of fame.”

“It hasn’t been that long, so I was really shocked. I was very excited. I texted my family right away and they are all excited for me. Just being able to represent is a big honor.”

Gardner said the response since her Hall of Fame induction was announced last month has been nice, including a surprise acknowledgement while she was attending a Warren East game in the Region 4 Tournament.

“It’s been really cool to talk to different people that have come up to me at games, especially that region game,” Gardner said. “I had a few people that I didn’t really know come up and congratulate me, so it has been nice to be able to talk (to girls) that are playing in high school and their parents and kind of give advice. It’s been really cool to talk to a lot of people in the softball community.”

Gardner was a mainstay in the Warren East lineup from the time she was first pitched as a seventh-grader in 2014. She helped the Lady Raiders finish as state runner-up in 2018 and 2019 with her senior season producing eye-popping stats. Gardner was 32-2 in the circle with 347 strikeouts. Offensively she hit 10 homers – four in her final seven games.

“I do like to try to stay as humble as I can,” Gardner said. “My family likes to hype me up a lot. Whenever I went back to look at my hitting stats I was hitting like .400 my senior year and I had no clue. That’s crazy. My pitching stats have always been ridiculous, so it was fun getting to go back and look at all of them.”

This will be Gardner’s second induction into a Hall of Fame this year, with Warren East inducting her into the school’s Hall of Fame in January. She said that induction allowed her to sit back and reflect on what she was able to do.

“I already had an outline of the things I needed to give them for this one,” Gardner said. “It’s nice going back and talking with my family about all the things I did at East and then I put a couple of things I did at Western in there into the Hall of Fame. It was nice to go back and reflect on a lot of the memories I made at East.”

Gardner said the two state runner-up finishes stand out the most in her memories of her playing days.

“I know they are both heartbreakers, but the journeys for both of those my junior and senior year – it was a long journey, but lots of fun memories for sure,” Gardner said.

She added those setbacks really were a driving force to her college success which included a Conference USA title in 20201.

“I definitely took a lot of it with me, especially in college,” Gardner said. “My freshman year was COVID, but my sophomore year of college we ended up winning the Conference USA Tournament. It was kind of a little victory for me in that way, using those two losses in high school to come out a champion my first full year of college.”

Those memories will definitely take center stage during Saturday’s ceremony. Gardner said she expects to have plenty of family members, friends and former teammates in attendance – adding she knows it will be an emotional night.

“There will probably be lots of emotions, reflecting on my time at East,” Gardner said. “Lots of happy emotions for sure. Some excitement and then of course having my family there will be great with all the support they have given me since I was five starting out. It will be a nice full circle moment.

“I feel like it is not just a moment for me, but for my family with all the support they have given me.”