Gallery by Tina Laney
Crawley – Winning softball games in the postseason has always involved three key components: timely hitting, solid pitching and good defense.
Wednesday night in its Class A Region 3, Section 2 showdown at Greenbrier West, Midland Trail only needed two of the three.
Kylie Ramsey and Raygen Parsons provided the clutch hits, while freshman hurler Madison Rader refused to break under pressure, guiding the Patriots to a 4-3 win over the top-seeded Cavaliers in eight innings at Western Greenbrier Middle School.
Midland Trail advances to the sectional championship round starting Saturday. Greenbrier West will play the winner of Webster County and Charleston Catholic Friday in the double-elimination format.
“At the end of the day, it was the team that hit the ball,” Midland Trail head coach Candace Young said. “I knew it was going to be a dogfight tonight. It was a stressful dogfight, but I am glad we came out on the winning side.”
All of the drama in the game unfolded in the final two innings.
The Patriots trailed 2-1 in the seventh inning and were down to their final out when the bats caught some much needed fire.
Senior Anna Weaver smacked a sharp single to left bringing Ramsey to the plate.
“We bounced back and forth on swinging for her. I asked her if she wanted me to swing for her, or could she do this,” Young said. “I didn’t want to swing for her because I knew it was in there.”
The junior first baseman was convinced she was up to the challenge.
“I knew there were two outs and it was all on me basically,” Ramsey said. “(Coach Young) came up to me and asked me if I could do it. I said I will do it, and I did it. I wasn’t expecting it, but I did it. I was just trying to hit the ball and make contact.”
Ramsey’s blast went over the head of the center-fielder for a double, scoring the tying run.
“I will giver her credit, she comes early almost every single day and she and I are in the cage,” Young said. “She has been putting in the work and I couldn’t be more proud.”
Rader dodged a one-out error in the bottom of the seventh forcing back-to-back ground ball outs to send the game to the extra frame.
In the eighth inning, Midland Trail once again sparked a rally with two outs.
Rader kept Trail alive with a single before Nevaeh Hall followed with her third hit of the night. Rader never stopped and slid safely into third base, while Hall moved to second on the throw.
Parsons singled home the eventual game-winning runs with a sharp ground ball through the infield for a 4-2 lead.
“That has been our Achilles heel this year. In games that we have won, we have found our sticks,” Young said. “In games that have been tight or lost, we have had double digit strikeouts. Coming in we knew the name of the game for us was to put the bat on the ball and make them make plays.”
“It was big hits from young kids and kids that I put on the spot. Ramsey being one of them,” Young went on to say. “My freshman catcher driving something to get us those two runs. Just big happenings and I am so excited.”
West did not go quietly in its last at-bat.
One-out singles from Hannah Sweet and Brooke Patterson were followed by a sharp single from Maddie Fields, scoring Sweet.
Patterson was held at third and Fields moved to second on the the throw home.
With runners at second and third with one out for the third time on the night, Greenbrier West once again came up empty.
At yet another point in the game where Rader could have folded, the young freshman did the exact opposite.
“Her age in real life is not her age on the mound. She is very much like a veteran pitcher out there,” Young said. “She plays a lot of ball and it just shows the mentality that she has. She has the fortitude that you want in a pitcher and she is just freshman. She will continue to grow.”
Rader talked about her mindset in those tough situations.
“I really just try to go at the batter,” Rader said. “I know the runners are there, but I am pretty good at working through stuff like that. I just threw the ball.”
Not only did the young freshman escape the three crucial scoring opportunities for West, she also shook off an early solo-homer from West pitcher Brilee Redden.
“I go back to the first inning home run. She let a ball drift a little bit and some young pitchers would have just shut down right there,” Young said. “She never got mad or got upset. She just held her composure. That shows how much she has grown from game one to now and the confidence she has in herself.”
Easily pitching in the biggest game thus far of her young career, Rader allowed just five hits, two earned runs and fanned 11 Cavaliers.
“I was nervous, but I get really excited for stuff like this. I knew it was going to be a tough game, but I knew I could handle it fine. West is a really good team and they can hit.”
Making the game more frustrating for Greenbrier West was the fact that Trail committed 10 errors in the contest.
“That has kind of been our story this year. We have won games that we shouldn’t have sometimes. It is just a testament to how much grit the kids have,” Young said. “I even ask them in the huddle, did we play a good game? Not necessarily. That just means we can play better and hopefully it won’t be as stressful. I was super proud of their grit there at the end.”
Failing to convert at key times was only part of the equation for the Cavaliers. The home team stranded 14 bases runners on the night as well.
“Timely hitting is where it is and we had plenty of opportunities. I don’t how many we left on base, but it was too many,” Greenbrier West head coach Tony Hinkle said after the game. “If you don’t get the timely hits, it costs you. How do you not win a game like that? Small ball really bothered them and in hindsight maybe we should have played more small ball.”
Should West win Friday, it will have to beat Trail twice for the sectional title.
