West Jessamine

Jessamine County athletes continue to flock to Asbury University as the Eagles girls' soccer program gained the commitments of two Lady Colts on Tuesday. In the West Jessamine library, seniors Toria Howard and Maddye Hahn signed their letters of intent to Asbury in the presence of friends and family after school. West girls' soccer head coach Kevin Wright told the crowd how vital the two were to the success of the Lady Colts during their high-school careers. “Being a winner and just being a leader like they are just doesn't happen by chance,” Wright said.

J.T. Long threw six effective innings, but the Mercer County offense couldn't support him Tuesday as the Titans lost 2-1 to No. 21 West Jessamine in a critical 46th District game at Nicholasville. Long allowed two runs on six hits and one walk and struck out seven batters for visiting Mercer (16-5, 2-2 district), but three West Jessamine pitchers held the Titans to six hits. The Titans, who defeated the Colts 4-1 on April 16, also left seven runners on base, including at least one in each of the last four innings.

There was tension at the plate and in the stands Tuesday as West Jessamine baseball earned a 2-1 victory over district foe Mercer County, obtaining a bye in the opening round of the 12th Region tournament. “It's a great win,” said West head coach Jody Hamilton. “It virtually means we got a chance to go to the region ... to sit and wait to see who we play the next day (as the No. 1 seed). " The Colts, who have recently been bringing their best stuff to the mound, needed three pitchers to get the job done against the Titans despite holding them to one run. Sophomore Maxx Mahon started, showing signs of what he produced in recent wins but struggled to find the strike zone.

One of Mercer County's most valuable players has learned the value of teamwork. John Ingram said it is one of the most important things he has learned during his time with the Titans and one of the most important factors in their back-to-back regional championship seasons and their drive toward a third straight title. And he said it is one of the most important reasons why he has been successful at Mercer, where he has been a starter for three-plus years. Now, as he nears the end of his career, Ingram says he has come to understand what a team can do when players are working together.

With dual concerns of safety and efficiency, West Jessamine High school will alter its traffic pattern next year, placing priority on school buses and sending students and parents on the loop around the school. The school has two access points to Wilmore Road (Ky. 29): a two-lane exit just west of the highway's intersection with Jessamine Station Road and a three-lane junction about 400 feet west of that. The west junction has two lanes dedicated for entrance and a third exit lane that is also used for entering school-bus traffic.

West Jessamine and its pitching knocked off district foe Mercer County 2-1 on Tuesday. The district battle was full of drama with an error in the seventh placing a Titans batter on second while they were facing two outs. Junior Jarred Jones sealed the victory when forcing a groundout to senior short stop Tyler Adams, whose throw barely beat the runner to first. The Colts two RBIs came from juniors Jake Purkins and Drew Ward. Ward's single in the bottom of the sixth scored King from third base after he had swiped it and second en route to scoring.

Nearly month and a half ago, West Jessamine softball opened its season with a nine error, seven-run loss to Garrard County, setting the tone for a 1-9 record through the season's first 10 games. Saturday, facing Garrard once again - this time in the Jaguars Classic at East Jessamine - the Lady Colts used momentum from consecutive victories (only time of the season) to outlast the Lady Lions 8-2. "I thought overall it was a good team win," said West head coach Michelle Baker. "These past few games our defense has been pretty solid and we've had pretty good days at the plate.

West Jessamine High School kept its top-10 state ranking in the U.S. News and World Report's 2013 list of best high schools in the nation. West High came in eighth in Kentucky this year after a seventh-place ranking last year. West High earned a silver medal and a ranking of No. 812 in the nation. U.S. News awarded more than 4,800 gold, silver and bronze medals to the top-performing schools in the country. The nationwide rankings were derived from state assessment scores in reading and math as well as college-readiness performance.

It isn't always the case that rivalry rematches end up being as big as their hype - see Ali vs. Frazier, Kentucky vs. Louisville, the Yankees vs. the Red Sox. Nine days after taking a 13-2 gut check at home by the bats of West Jessamine, East Jessamine found its own storybook pitcher that helped the Jags edge out the Colts on their own diamond, 3-1. “I saw an outstanding effort from (junior) Sam Hall on the mound,” said East head coach Kevin Clary. “He's a great competitor, had command of the strike zone; he had command of all three of his pitches ... He just went after it.” Hall, who went the distance for East on Thursday, also found the mound against West on April 9 in the Jags' loss, pitching one inning of relief in which he allowed four hits and four runs.

The West Jessamine girls' tennis team, coming off of a victory over East Jessamine, traveled to Woodford County on Tuesday, where they were defeated 4-1. The Lady Colts' lone victory came in singles play. Sophomore Bailey Ludt, the team's No. 2 seed, defeated Woodford's Lindsey Sizemore 6-3, 6-1. Singles No. 1 Moni Porezcalva (WC) def. Sydney Sampson (WJ) 6-0, 6-0 No. 2 Bailey Ludt (WJ) def. Lindsey Sizemore (WJ) 6-3, 6-1 No. 3 Addison Beck (WC) def. Britt Fugmann (WJ)