OWENSBORO – The postseason comeback magic ended for the Warren East softball team, which fought back to get to the title game of the Owensboro Health/KHSAA State Softball Tournament, but couldn’t get past No. 1 Scott County – falling 10-0 in six innings Saturday at Jack C. Fisher Park.

Warren East got to the title game after splitting its first two games, opening the day with a grueling 2-1 loss in 13 innings to Scott County before rallying to beat Louisville Butler 9-5, but the tank was empty in the second meeting of the day with the Lady Cardinals.

The Lady Raiders end the season 33-6 with the best finish in fast pitch softball in school history.

“You have to give all the credit to Scott County, they are the best team in the state,” Warren East coach Philip McKinney said. “What an unbelievable ride. These kids put a big stamp with their name on it on this program.”

Catcher Ashton Akins, one of four seniors on the roster, said it was a great run to cap her prep career.

“It was special to come in here and make school history,” Akins said. “We had so many people here supporting us. We wanted to at least make a good run and we did that. It feels amazing, especially as a senior, to do this.”

Warren East began its day at 9 a.m., one win shy of getting to the state title game.

It would take 20 innings and more than eight hours before that became a reality.

The day started with a marathon heartbreaker to the Lady Cardinals, a game that lasted more than four hours with several 10-minute delays due to the heat index.

Scott County (38-2) scored on the fourth pitch of the game – a homer from Meryn Livingston – but couldn’t crack through again for the next 11 innings thanks to strong pitching from Katie Gardner and a highlight-reel catch by Lucy Patterson.

Katie Gardner escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth to keep the deficit at 1-0 and allow Patterson to tie it with her legs.

Patterson reached on a bunt single and stole second to move into scoring position with one out. With Gardner batting, Patterson stole third before coming home on an errant throw by the catcher.

There was no offense the rest of regulation, with the first rally snuffed out by Patterson. The Lady Cardinals had a runner at first when Kennedy Sullivan hit a fly ball to deep center for an apparent home run. Patterson reached over the fence to make the catch, then crashed through the fence and onto the ground – but held on to the ball to keep the game tied.

“She was making plays inside the field,” McKinney said. “She was making plays outside the field. The freshman was having a big game in a big moment. I was very happy for her.”

Patterson picked up another bunt single and stole second with one out in the 12th, but was stranded there.

Scott County finally broke the tie on an RBI single in the 13th and Warren East went in order in the bottom of the inning to move into an elimination game against Butler and end the second longest game in state tournament history.

“Wow, what a 13-inning game. Who knows, maybe if I call a different pitch that first batter, that first inning, maybe we win 1-0,” McKinney said. “I told Katie, ‘That is on me, kid. My bad.’ ”

Butler took a 2-0 lead with unearned runs in the first two innings, before a heat index delay stopped play for an hour.

The Bearettes added another unearned run in the top of the fifth before Warren East’s offense exploded in the bottom of the inning. The Lady Raiders scored nine times – with Patterson’s two-run single tying the game and Jeyda Bays’ three-run homer pushing Warren East in front 6-3.

Warren East had 10 hits in the rally – including a pair of RBI singles from Kelsey Sparks – to complete a rally similar to the Region 4 championship game against South Warren, when the Lady Raiders scored nine unanswered after trailing 5-2.

“It just showed us that we weren’t done and nothing was set in stone until the last three outs,” Bays said. “It felt really good that we could get back into the game.”

Butler tried to get closer, getting a single run in the sixth and seventh, but Gardner fielded a comebacker for the final out to secure the trip to the state title game.

Warren East needed a victory to set up a winner-take-all decisive game, but Scott County struck quickly to put the game away and deny the Lady Raiders another comeback.

Scott County scored three runs in the first on one hit and added four more runs in the second – including a homer from Sullivan to make the score 7-0.

The Lady Cardinals added another run in the fourth and finished it off with two runs in the sixth.

Olivia Price had Warren East’s lone hit in the championship game. Price, Gardner and Hymer earned all-tournament honors.

“This 10-0 championship game does not describe who we are as a team,” Akins said. “Everybody understands that we fought all day to get to this point. It feels good (to get here).”{&end}