PHILADELPHIA — Cheering from the dugout is a constant in softball.
Some teams take pride in devising catchy new phrases, while others stick with familiar sayings to motivate their hitters.
The Neshoba Central High School slow-pitch softball team doesn’t need words to provide a spark, but it showed Tuesday it is just as skilled delivering a timely phrase as it is peppering a softball.
Backed by a refrain of “We’re not done yet,” Neshoba Central had eight home runs in a 34-hit attack in 18-8 and 20-1 victories against New Hope in the best-of-three Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 5A-6A North State championship series.
The victories secured Neshoba Central (26-7) a spot against George County (25-7) in the best-of-three state title series at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Freedom Ridge Park in Ridgeland. Neshoba Central has won four slow-pitch championships in a row. It also has won the last four Class 5A fast-pitch state titles.
The series victory Tuesday marked the eighth-straight time Neshoba Central has eliminated New Hope from the postseason.
“Being in their shoes, that is a lot of pressure to uphold,” Neshoba Central coach Trae Embry said of the program’s tradition. “There are a lot of people who helped put the stamp on the program. These kids are holding their own.”
Embry made his comments as two of his former players, Katlyn Duke and Kayla Robertson, played pitcher and batter on the vacant diamond to his left. Another former player, Madalyn McMahon, also was in attendance to see the next wave of Lady Rockets carry on a tradition they helped build. Seventh-grader Tenly Grisham led the attack with six hits (two home runs) in the sweep. Fourteen of the 21 players on the Lady Rockets’ roster are underclassmen, which bodes well for the program’s future.
Embry said seniors Kaylee Routh, Alyssa Wilkinson, and Hannah Hall were asked Tuesday in a radio interview before the game how they handled the “obligation” of being on a program that has won eight-straight softball titles between slow- and fast-pitch seasons. He said the players realize there is a lot of pressure associated with being the team that everyone in the state wants to beat. He said playing at home eases the anxiety, which showed against New Hope, as Neshoba Central scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning in Game 1. It followed with seven runs in the second and three more in the third.
New Hope answered with five runs in the top of the fifth, but Neshoba Central tacked on four runs in the bottom half of the inning to secure the 10-run mercy rule.
“They don’t have a chance to shy away,” Embry said. “We don’t talk about shying away. We don’t even talk about last year. We’re one inning at a time.”
To accentuate that point, Neshoba Central doesn’t have reminders of its past accomplishments hanging on the outfield fence. Embry said he had the signs, which had been on the fence from left-center to right-center field, removed a year or two ago. He said he hoped there would be time today to put up the board that will show off the years of the program’s past state titles near the school entrance.
In Game 2, Neshoba Central sent 20 to the plate in a 14-run third inning. The Lady Rockets had 13 hits in the frame, including two home runs and five extra-base hits.
In the sweep, Kaylee Routh and Sindle Williams had five hits and a home run, Alyssa Wilkinson had four hits and a home run, Makenzie Barnett had three hits, Tori Henderson and Hallie Billie had three hits and a home run, and Elleigh Willis had a home run. Williams, Henderson, and Willis had grand slams.
“This team is streaky,” Embry said. “I have said that all year. If you go back to Saturday (against Grenada), we won the first game and we scored one run in the second game. Tonight, we knew we had to score in every inning because we knew they could really, really hit the ball. They showed that when they got down.”
New Hope had six hits in its five-run fifth, but it had multiple hits in only two other at-bats. New Hope coach Bobby Taylor said that went against his team’s strategy to put pressure on Neshoba Central by scoring early. Taylor said the Lady Trojans were too anxious at the plate, were out in front of pitches, and went after pitches out of the strike zone.
Kylie Cox, Lanoria Abrams, Anna Kate O’Bryant, Aubri Boulds, and Kenzie Ray had two hits for New Hope in Game 1. Ray was the only Lady Trojans with more than one hit in Game 2.
“We didn’t apply any pressure to them at all, and a team like that feeds off that,” Taylor said. “If you don’t apply pressure to them, they are going to hit like that.”
Taylor hoped the momentum from the fifth inning in Game 1 would carry over to Game 2. Unfortunately, New Hope didn’t score in the first two innings of the second game. Neshoba Central’s 14-run third proved too big of an obstacle to overcome.
Taylor, who will coach the school’s fast-pitch team in the spring, said he would begin work with the players today to prepare for 2017. He isn’t sure if the losses will serve as motivation for the players who will be with the fast-pitch team, but he knows he and the Lady Trojans will work hard to get better for any opponent.
“If you would have told me I would have been at this spot three weeks ago I would have told you you were crazy,” Taylor said. “I am proud of them for getting to where we got to. As for fast pitch, we’re going to go after them.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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