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GRAYSON East Carter entered Monday’s softball showdown with Ashland looking to show it’s a credible threat to the Kittens’ recent domination of the 16th Region.

Five-time defending region champion Ashland sought to prove, simply, that — for now — this is still its region.

Both were successful. The Kittens eked out a 1-0 win as Megan Hensley fired a two-hitter with 17 strikeouts to make a first-inning run stand up against East Carter’s Montana Fouts, who also tossed a two-hitter with seven punchouts.

The Lady Raiders, though, got Ashland’s attention by making things interesting late.

“They’re gonna be one of our rivals in the region this year ... and they’ve come a long way,” Hensley said.

But East Carter (15-4) could do little against Louisville verbal commit Hensley. Her riseball befuddled the Lady Raiders their first time through the order, as she struck out the first nine hitters she faced and didn’t allow a baserunner until Eden Mayo worked a walk with two outs in the fifth.

The Lady Raiders did manage to get two runners on in both the sixth and seventh innings, breaking up Hensley’s no-hit bid with Whitney Hall’s bleeder through the left side in the sixth.

East Carter had two on with two out in both of the last two innings. Hensley escaped both jams with strikeouts.

“I was just thinking hit all my spots, and I came at it with everything I had,” Hensley said. “And I knew that since we weren’t producing all the runs that we should’ve, I had to try to help and not let them hit as much.”

Ashland (10-1) only got to eighth-grader Fouts for one run — in its first at-bat.

Sydney Whitt dropped a leadoff bunt and reached on an error, and Katie Baldock’s sacrifice bunt and McKenzie Vanover’s deep sac fly advanced her to third.

Hensley then aided her own cause with a two-out single right between Fouts’s legs to plate Whitt with the only run she would need.

Kittens coach Dave Miller marveled at his team’s ability to make do with a solitary run through seven innings.

“Who would’ve dreamed that two bunts in the first inning and a base hit would’ve been the difference?” Miller asked rhetorically. “But it really says a lot about a team that can just stake a run, and that’s enough, because at the end of the day, does it really matter if you win by 10 or 20? It’s a win. It’s a good win against a good team at their place.”