Reality has sunk for the Heritage Academy fast-pitch softball team.
If Gary Harris didn’t see it for himself, the veteran coach probably wouldn’t have believed it, especially after a suffering a 15-0 loss in its first game of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA North State tournament last weekend.
But young teams like Harris’ have the ability to bounce back quickly in part because they don’t grasp the significance of their situations. A perfect example came Monday when Heritage Academy returned to Senatobia after clinching a spot in this weekend’s Class AAA Overall State tournament at Shiloh Park in Brandon. Prior to his team’s game against Madison-Ridgeland Academy, the same team that knocked his squad into the losers’ bracket Saturday, Harris watched as his middle-school age players enjoyed the moment and rolled down a large hill in left field behind the fence to the softball field.
“I looked at (assistant) coach (Mickey) Allen and said, ‘Really?’ ” Harris said. “Those girls were loose. All of the pressure was on MRA. There was no pressure on us. It was just one of those things where everything seems to line up right. We pitched it well, we hit it well, we defended it fairly well.”
Heritage Academy (16-16) won that game 4-3 to solidify its place in the state tournament. It will play Columbia Academy at 10:45 a.m. Saturday in its first game of the double-elimination event. Only four players remain on this year’s team from two years ago, when Harris guided the program to the state tournament. He said that inexperience has made the journey to this point even sweeter.
“That has been a goal of ours all year,” Harris said, “but with the youth on this team, to be honest with you, midway through the season I didn’t know if that was going to be something we could attain.”
Harris said the Lady Patriots have overcome being without catcher Brooklyn Waldrep for the whole season due to an illness. He said Macy Walters has stepped in at catcher and has blossomed as a battery-mate with pitcher Kaitlyn Oswalt. In addition to having two key leaders, Harris said his younger players have played their roles and made key contributions.
Harris said it has helped that all of the Heritage Academy players have short memories.
“When Ron Polk was at Mississippi State, he used to say ‘That’s baseball.’ I guess you could say, ‘That’s softball,’ ” Harris said when asked how to explain his team’s ability to bounce back from the loss to MRA. “With a team this young, you make a couple of mistakes early and it can snowball. But I had a great feeling. I woke up Monday morning and I had a great feeling about that game. I told KO and Macy — they were the last two off the bus — I said, ‘You two are going to do something special today. I know you are.’ ”
Oswalt responded by allowing three hits and one earned run in five innings in a 4-3 victory. She walked one and struck out nine. Walters and Kaitlyn Hocutt had two hits, while Sydney Adair, Tyler Rhett, and Hayley Martin also had hits. Blair Madison had an RBI, and Macy Nordquist scored a run.
Harris credited assistant coach Mickey Allen for calling a great game for Oswalt. He also praised the efforts of Walters, who answered his call for a leader to play like a leader.
Magnolia Heights ended Heritage Academy’s day with a 10-0 victory. The loss secured the No. 3 seed for the Lady Patriots. Columbia Academy is the No. 2 seed out of the South.
An 8-7 victory against Jackson Academy and a 5-3 victory against Pillow Academy on Saturday helped Heritage Academy advance to the state tournament. Harris said Oswalt pitched as well as she has all season at the North State tournament. Prior to the postseason, he said her best game was a 2-0 loss to Pillow Academy in the regular season.
“She saved her best for this time of the year,” Harris said. “Coming into the 15-0 loss to MRA, I didn’t think she looked very sharp. She didn’t look sharp against JA. She made an error or two in the circle, but she righted herself after that. … To their credit, they stepped up like leaders are supposed to step up after I challenged them.”
Oswalt and Walters said the reality of their situation started to sink in Tuesday when they received congratulations and pats on the back after their victories. After all of the red marks on their backs from their friends and teachers, Walters said it still feels like a “dream.”
Oswalt said she “pitched her heart out” against Pillow Academy to help keep the Lady Patriots’ season stay alive. She said the two-day tournament was particularly pleasing for her because she didn’t put all of the pressure on herself and allowed her defense to make plays. Earlier in the season, Oswalt said she was trying not to take everything in her hands so she could be more relaxed in the circle.
“I think I have matured, and I knew what I needed to get done,” Oswalt said. “I knew I had to trust my team. If a pitch doesn’t go right, the team steps up and helps me when it is needed.”
Walters said things started to click after the Jackson Academy game and helped everyone realize how close the team was to reaching its goal. She said it was satisfying to see everyone come together and produce.
“Throughout the season, four of us have been on and the rest of us been having a bad day,” Walters said. “Four people don’t make up for a team not doing their best. … Our outfield has started making plays that earlier in the season they weren’t. Once the rest of the people on our team realized that if she can make a play, I can make a play, we have a lot more confidence as a team and we start making more plays.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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