For West Lowndes High School, the scoreboard did not reflect victory Tuesday night.
However for the Lady Panthers’ players and coaches, the post-game celebration sure sounded like one of victory.
West Lowndes scored five runs in its final at-bat, before falling 10-9 to visiting Starkville High School in a 2-hour, 38-minute slow-pitch softball marathon.
West Lowndes is still yet to win a varsity game in its three-year existence as a program.
“This is the best we’ve played,” West Lowndes coach Bill Gates said. “We have come such a long way. We sure have taken some beatings. This is the year we will finally win some games.”
To find West Lowndes on the doorstep of victory Tuesday night had to be quite shocking.
Starkville scored three runs in its first at-bat and later sprinted to a 10-3 advantage in the fourth inning.
“What tonight is taught us that we need to keep believing and we need to keep working hard,” West Lowndes senior Carlita Sanders said. “We really feel like we won tonight. We learned if we believe in each other, we can win.”
The Lady Panthers knocked an apparently meaningless run off the lead in the sixth inning and bunched four walks, three hits and an error into the five-run seventh inning.
The contest ended with West Lowndes having runners at second and third base.
“One more hit,” Gates said. “It was kind of amazing we were in that position to begin with. The biggest thing I am proud of how is we didn’t give up at 10-3.
“We challenged the girls in the dugout. Either you are going to get back into the game or you are going to go away and get run-ruled. The team decided to fight until the end.”
Gates said the biggest deterrent in the gradual build of the program has been depth. Each season, West Lowndes, a Class 1A school, has only a handful of players ready to play softball on a high level.
“Each year, it has been mainly a bunch of seniors that we start the year with,” Gates said. “So you coach them up and play that one season and then they are gone.
“Finally, we are to the point where we have younger and younger players on the roster. We have four or five seniors on this year’s team. So some of the younger players have been around and played together for a couple of seasons. That is why you have seen the team improve each year.”
While the contest had drama, it did not have crispness. The teams combined to walk 21 and a total of eight errors were made in the field.
“The thing we need to take from this game is that we have to keep hitting the ball,” Starkville coach Lisa Spencer said. “You can’t score 10 runs and stop scoring. That is not how slow-pitch softball works.”
Starkville’s inability to put the contest away opened the door for West Lowndes. The Lady Jackets only managed two base runners in their final three at-bats.
“Our outfield was outstanding,” Gates said. “Our play at third base and shortstop was outstanding. We stress every day fundamentals in practice. Throwing to the right bag and making the smart play.
“Yes, we threw the ball around some but we limited that. For the most part, we played smart.”
In the opener, the West Lowndes junior varsity won 11-1. For the Lady Panthers, it was their first-ever junior varsity softball win.
“We will build on that,” Gates said. “It was a very positive step in the right direction.”
In the varsity game, Iyanna Clark and Danesha Hubbard each had multiple hits for Starkville. Miya Snell and Kelsea Smith each had two hits for West Lowndes.
Smith had a two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning which brought the hosts within a run.
“We were so close tonight,” said Sanders, the squad’s starting first baseman and relief pitcher. “This was very exciting. I can’t even imagine what it will feel like when we win a game.”
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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