Focused.
When you have to wait three and a half to four hours in between games, there is no other way to describe the mentality that a team needs to win a championship.
Sammy Lindsey felt his Central Academy slow-pitch softball team was ready in the days of practice leading up to the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Slow-Pitch State tournament. He just wasn’t sure how his young team was going to respond.
Central Academy (12-3) showed its coach it was ready by beating Winona Christian 7-6 in nine innings and Kemper Academy 11-1 and 5-2 to win the eighth state title in the program’s history.
“Their mind-set was to get it done and they did it,” said Lindsey, who also coaches the school’s fast-pitch team. “I just had a feeling (the team was going to win the title). They looked like they were totally into it and like this was their No. 1 goal. They played their hearts out.”
Lindsey said sophomore Blake Rigdon, who is the only player on this year’s team remaining from the program’s last championship, took the lead Saturday. He said she told her teammates Central Academy won its first two games and then had to wait a long time to play its next game the last time it won the championship in 2010. That pattern held true Saturday, as Central Academy spent several hours waiting in the school’s air conditioned weight room after it won its first two games. Lindsey said the team relaxed, rehydrated, ate plenty of fruit, and waited its turn.
“Her being here and letting them know this is how we did it the last time helped the younger players understand we just had to finish it like we started,” Lindsey said. “They were so focused today. I couldn’t be any prouder of them.”
When the team took the field again, it was fitting it defeated one of its biggest rivals to capture the crown.
“No doubt it is sweet. It is real sweet,” Lindsey said of beating Kemper Academy.
Lindsey didn’t have statistics from the games, but he said his daughter, Sadie, scored the winning run in the ninth inning of the first game to get things started. He praised the efforts of pitcher Cassie Campbell, who walked only a handful of batters, and all of the Lady Vikings for playing solid defense and being all over the field.
“We have had a few errors scattered along the way and we were not playing up to the way we could, but they were back to the fence and diving (for balls),” Lindsey said. “The defense is what I was most impressed with today.”
Now Lindsey has another chore to tackle: Finding room on the white board next to the school’s softball field that lists the years of past championship teams. He said the 2012 title will fit nicely into the last spot, so he might have to find a new way to display the school’s tradition.
But he better tackle that task soon because the team loses only senior Logan Waggoner and should continue to mature and challenge for titles in fast- and slow-pitch in the coming years.
“This team is young and the future looks great for Central softball,” Lindsey said. “We’re going to keep rolling the best we can.”
In addition to Waggoner, Rigdon, Campbell, and Lindsey, Jakyla Smith, Neely Abrams, Sarah Norris, Jamai Smith, Kayla Brown, Paige Buchanan, Courtney Gaylord, Sarah Holley, Savanah Stapleton, Kelsey Robbins, and Anna Beth Rigdon also were a part of the championship squad.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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