Gallery by Heather Belcher
Hico – Midland Trail head softball coach Candace Young admitted she had some concerns early in the season when her team struggled to hit the ball.
The Patriots appear to have put those worries to rest just in time for their postseason run.
Wednesday night with a chance to repeat as the Class A Region 3 champions, the Trail bats were on fire.
Exploding for 14 hits over the first three frames, Midland Trail bested James Monroe 15-7 in five innings to hoist the regional plaque.
The win sends the Patriots back to the state softball tournament which starts Wednesday at Little Creek Park in South Charleston.
“This feels good,” Young said. “I am sure at the beginning of the season when things got rough, there were a lot of people that doubted us. It is nothing that I have done. The girls just have heart and grit. They really put it together.”
Senior shortstop Chezney Skaggs is one of only four returning players that saw significant varsity time last year and she explained the transformation at the plate.
“It is pretty exciting because we lost a a lot of people and we weren’t sure if we could make it to this point. We have come a long way this year, especially with our batting,” Skaggs said. “We have just come together as a team and it has been a lot of (batting practice). We have become more consistent and we are hitting the ball really good.”
After dropping game one to the Patriots, the Mavericks needed a win to force a deciding game three back in Lindside tomorrow.
James Monroe opened the game by taking what looked to be a commanding lead.
Four base hits by the Mavericks and two errors by Trail made it a 6-0 game before Trail swung the first bat.
“We could have easily rolled over right there and said it’s cool, we have another game. The girls didn’t do that. They knew what we could do offensively,” Young said. “They said we gave them six, but we are not going to let that impact us. We came back in and did what we needed to do. That showed a lot of maturity and a lot of heart.”
Three straight singles, a double from Madison Campbell and sacrifice flies from Jenna Stonestreet and Layla Tompkins trimmed the deficit to 6-4 after one inning.
Trail was not the same team the next four innings in the field.
“We weren’t communicating very well in that first inning. We talk about that every day in practice,” Young said. “Talking teams win games. Once we got our line of communication going, the defense picked right up.”
In the first inning, Patriots starter Meghan Gill had watched a couple of balls fall that could have been caught, as well as the two errors that aided the Mavericks’ big inning.
If the inning bothered Gill, the veteran hurler never let it be known.
“She has some of the best mental fortitude. She has what it takes to be a pitcher. To be a pitcher you have to have a different mindset,” Young said. “She had it last year and she still has it. She doesn’t let herself get in that quicksand over things like that. I think she handles that better than I handle it.”
Over the final four innings, Gill allowed just one run to keep James Monroe at bay.
“We always have one bad inning, so I wasn’t doubting the defense on that. Once we got that third out, we came in and put that inning behind us. We just had to play the game now,” Gill said. “I can’t let that effect me out on the mound. Pitching is a mental thing and you have to stay focused.”
Gill’s teammates were rock solid over the final four innings committing no errors, while robbing James Monroe on several hard hit balls.
“I think the confidence from our batting carried over from yesterday to today and we hit good again,” Skaggs said. “That confidence then carried over to the field for us after the first inning.”
Midland Trail hit four straight singles to open the second inning and if Young had a stop sign in her pocket, she never flashed it.
Sending runners every chance she had, Young used her team’s speed to aggressively run bases and build a 10-6 lead after two innings of play.
When the Patriots finally started hitting it became infectious up and down the lineup. That fact was on full display Wednesday.
“I am pretty sure everyone poked something through tonight and that was great. Out of the 16 kids I have, I could say something positive about all of them. They are a great team and they play well together,” Young said.
Jessie Skaggs opened the third inning with a walk and scored on a double from Sydney Sheets. Sheets scored easily on a triple from Gill who then scored on a single from Madison Campbell.
A walk later in the inning for Tompkins set the table for Katie Hawkins who doubled in two runs for the a 15-6 lead.
The Mavs added one run in the fifth inning, but a pair of liners that were snagged by Skaggs at short and a fly ball to Campbell sealed the win for the Patriots.
“We had the start we wanted and we still hit the ball tonight. We just hit the ball hard right at them. The first inning swings were not the second, third or fourth inning swings,” James Monroe head coach Jack Phipps said. “We made some mistakes on some balls that weren’t caught and we normally haven’t done that this year.”
Midland Trail will play Wahama (26-2) in the second game of the morning session next Wednesday. The game will start approximately at noon.
“When we went down there last year our bats weren’t good and we had a few errors. We just have to keep our minds straight,” Skaggs said. “When we got down there last year, a lot of the girls had not played competitively at that level and the nerves were bad. We just have to stay calm and play our game.”
JM: 600 01 – 7 10 0
MT: 465 0x – 15 14 2
Pitching – JM: Bryleigh Thomas, Shannon Phipps (3) and Haley Hunnicutt; MT: Meghan Gill and Sydney Sheets
WP: Gill; LP: Thomas
Hitting – JM: Chloe Shires 3-4 (rbi), Shannon Phipps 1-4, Bryleigh Thomas 1-3, Emily Bailey 2-3 (2 rbi), Jadyn Bradley 1-3 (rbi), Kaydence Weikle 1-3 (rbi), Madison Vass 1-1; MT: Sydney Sheets 3-4 (2b, rbi), Chezney Skaggs 2-4 (2 rbi), Meghan Gill 3-3 (3b, 2 rbi), Madison Campbell 2-2 (2b, rbi), Jenna Stonestreet (sac), Layla Tompkins 1-1 (sac, 2 rbi), Katie Hawkins 2-3 (2b, 2 rbi), Jessie Skaggs 1-1.
