Through all the noise of a standing-room-only WKU Softball Complex, Shelby Nunn approached a do-or-die moment.

It was just last year when the South Warren senior watched from the dugout while her team won a Region 4 championship.

Now here she was, facing the music – or the noise – while one swing away from the end of it all or life for another day.

“I just tried to block it out and just thought about the game,” Nunn said. “I had the mindset that this could very well be my last at-bat as a senior.”

She made sure that wasn’t the case.

Nunn grounded a walk-off two-run single just ahead of Warren East second baseman Kya Elkin to secure South Warren’s second straight Region 4 championship in a 3-2 win over the Lady Raiders on Thursday.

The Spartans (32-3) scored all three runs in the bottom of the seventh with two outs and Nunn hit the walk-off single on a 1-2 count.

When she reached first base, all she heard was noise, then looked at the scoreboard to see Alexis Isable and Abbey Mills had scored the two runs to win it.

“After she got that, she dropped to her knees and was crying,” Spartans junior Lauren Martin said. “We huddled around her and were in tears because we were so excited (for her).”

Nunn, a Western Kentucky signee, finished with two hits and earned the win from the circle with seven strikeouts and five hits surrendered in being named the Region 4 tournament MVP.

“Last year I didn’t get to experience this, but coming in this year I just hoped for the best,” Nunn said. “It’s something that you really can’t put into words. It’s exciting and that adrenaline pumping is just awesome.”

As a pitcher since she was 10 years old, Nunn’s shoulder started nagging her a few months before her sophomore season. She went through summer travel ball in 2015 before discovering a tear in her labrum and fraying in her rotator cuff.

Surgery required all muscles be retied, which put her out of commission as a junior where she watched South Warren claim its first Region 4 championship.

Nunn came back full strength this year and helped the Spartans start the year 25-0 in splitting time in the circle with fellow senior Karson Williams.

“It was tough for her last year,” South Warren coach Chris Riggs said. “She went through and didn’t play at all and had a chance to do all this last year. I’m really, really happy for her as a senior to be able to experience this kind of atmosphere.”

For most of Thursday, it appeared Nunn would play her last game in a Spartan uniform.

She bent but never broke against the Lady Raiders in a 2-0 hole through seven innings. Warren East scored both runs in the top of the third inning when Katie Gardner drove in the first run on a bases-loaded single. An RBI sacrifice bunt scored the second run before Nunn struck out the next two to escape the inning.

Nunn settled down and worked down the order in the fourth and fifth innings.

“I know I have an excellent defense behind me and I don’t need to strike out everyone, just make sure and hold everybody,” Nunn said. “I have an excellent defense behind me and I couldn’t have asked for anything more tonight.”

Gardner ends stellar postseason

Katie Gardner pitched a postseason to remember.

In a year where she set the school’s single-game strikeout and career wins record, she saved her best performances for the district and region tournaments.

The Warren East sophomore came one out away from not allowing a single run in the five postseason games, but South Warren spoiled that feat in the 3-2 comeback victory in the Region 4 championship game.

Gardner struck out 11 Spartans before an error and three straight hits with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning ended the Lady Raiders’ season.

“I felt like maybe I could do it again with how confident I was, and I did,” Gardner said. “I had it pretty good and just some plays here and there could’ve went their way or our way. It just sucks.”

Gardner combined to strike out 45 batters in five postseason games and gave up just 11 hits before facing the Spartans, who took her for six hits.

“I definitely feel like I’ve gotten stronger putting balls where they need to be and speed-wise I feel like I’ve gotten stronger,” Gardner said. “I’ll carry this over into travel ball this summer.”{&end}