article State Baseball Tournament ends this weekend at Whitaker Bank Park; Softball Future

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 12, 2018

The 2018 Whitaker Bank/KHSAA State Baseball Tournament resumes Friday evening with the semifinals at Whitaker Bank Ballpark (6 & 8:30 p.m.), and concludes Saturday night with the championship game at 7 p.m. Tickets for the games are available for purchase through KHSAA.org (Tickets.com).

Hazard (26-9) will take on St. Xavier (35-2) in the first semifinal game at 6 p.m. on Friday night, followed by Highlands (28-13) versus McCracken County (34-8) at 8:30 p.m. The semifinals and final of the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA State Baseball Tournament will be webcast live at KHSAA.tv through the NFHS Network, which is a subscription-based service.

Subscription plans for the NFHS Network are available for $9.95 a month. A monthly subscription, priced less than the cost of admission to a state championship event, entitles users to every broadcast by the KHSAA and the more than 40 participating state associations. To subscribe to the NFHS Network, visit: Subscription Landing Page | Live high school sports video on the NFHS Network | NFHSNetwork.com

A free audio-only feed of the webcast games will also be available online through KHSAA.net and Mixlr (KHSAA is on Mixlr. Mixlr is a simple way to share live audio onlin...), which has a corresponding app available for iOS and Android devices. Live stats for each game will be available at KHSAA.org.

2018 Whitaker Bank/KHSAA State Baseball Tournament

Official Program – KHSAA

Tournament Bracket – http://khsaa.org/baseball/2018/statebaseballbracket.pdf

Tournament Central (Rosters, Live Stats, etc.) – http://khsaa.org/2018-whitaker-bankkhsaa-state-baseball-tournament/

Order Tickets – Tickets.com

State Softball Moves to Single-Elimination Format in 2019

Scott County capturing the 2018 Owensboro Health/KHSAA State Softball Championship last weekend marked the last state title in the event’s double-elimination format, as the softball tournament will transition to single elimination in 2019. The 2018 championship also marked the final year of the Association’s contract with the city of Owensboro, leaving the future site of the tournament up for consideration. The KHSAA will begin the RFP process this summer for a future site, with the matter to be reviewed by the Board of Control during its September meeting in conjunction with championship discussions in other spring sports.

“Since I became Commissioner, I have been working with the Board of Control on various changes and improvements to tournament formats and new offerings. Softball has presented continual challenges during that time, largely due to its format,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “The overwhelming majority of our softball schools had long favored our sixteen team, double elimination format. While this format allowed for a great level of participation, it certainly placed restrictions on many aspects of the tournament including schedule, format and location.

“Our staff and Board have worked collectively in demonstrating the need for change as the game, its participants and all aspects around the event continue to evolve. These discussions culminated in the Board’s February approval of moving the softball tournament away from a double-elimination event after our contracted period was up with the current site. I am pleased the Board has allowed for transformational discussions of both our baseball and softball state events. There are lots of factors to consider and discuss, but if all goes according to plan, we will collectively end up with a product that will allow our student-athletes the best possible participation experience regardless of the eventual tournament format or location.

“I, along with the Association and its Board of Control and member schools, will be forever grateful to the City of Owensboro and all of the past sites of our tournament over the last twenty-four years of fastpitch softball. Owensboro, its Parks Department and their great staff, Convention and hotel industries and the business community at-large, have been ultra-supportive of the event including funding tens of thousands of dollars in improvements to the local facilities in addition to significant sponsorship dollars. I am hopeful, and will make efforts to ensure, that they have a desire to be involved with this and many other KHSAA events and undertakings for the foreseeable future.”

A current list of important championship dates and sites for the 2018-19 academic year can be found at https://khsaa.org/calendar/1819refcalendar.pdf

Just in case anyone is interested.

It will be interesting to see who bids for state softball. Outside of the colleges are there any facilities that could reasonably host the way the KHSAA desires?

Taking a glance at pictures of the Division I facilities in Kentucky, UK and UofL could absolutely host; EKU and WKU probably could; Murray, Morehead, and NKU probably can't.

Another title game for Lexington perhaps? It amuses me that just a few years ago they were rah-rah about the need to distribute the title events, and then consolidated several to Lexington.

Frankly, I'm in favor of a single elimination format for softball. But it is so completely in-line with this administration to read about how the overwhelming majority wanted double-elimination, but they're going to single essentially because they didn't like holding the finals in the venues they've been at.