CALEDONIA — The Cavaliers softball team suffered a difficult home loss in Game 1 of their Class 4A Round 2 playoff series against Choctaw Central on Thursday, falling 12-0 at home.
Caledonia, 23-6, has only been shut out one other time this season, and now has a lot of work to do to overcome the series deficit on the road.
Head coach Andy Finch had a simple message to his team after the loss, hoping to inspire them to shake off the bad feeling and remind them that nothing is decided yet.
“Just reset and regroup,” he said, summarizing the team talk after the defeat. “It’s the second bad game out of 30, but you can’t let a bad game affect you the next day. It’s a new day tomorrow, we go there, and maybe we’ll have a better showing. What we saw tonight is not what we’ve been all year.”
The Warriors, 17-7, came out swinging with an aggressive approach that paid off at the plate. They drove in four runs in the first inning, two in the second and another four in the third.
Caledonia pitchers Kennedy Trotter and Marlee Franks both tried to mix up their pitches but struggled to stay in the zone in doing so, and it didn’t help that the Warriors’ batters continued to find the gaps up the middle and down the left field foul line. There was no margin for error, which made defensive mistakes that much more costly.
“We need to be more consistent in the circle and produce better play defensively,” Finch said of the team’s adjustments going into Game 2. “I thought we swung the bat pretty well, had one strikeout, but they made some plays. They’re a good defensive team. We need a better strike percentage and make the plays to keep them from getting an extra base.”
Finch knows his team has more in them, but the main thing is to reset in time to force a Game 3 back home on Saturday.
“We want to see them regroup and realize one game doesn’t affect the whole series. Choctaw may say they beat us 12-0, but we’re a better team than that, and that’s what we’re looking for. We want to see them have fun, compete, and play together.”
The Cavaliers have shown plenty of times this season that they have the firepower to put up numbers on offense. They’ve scored 10 or more runs in nine games this season, including both Round 1 playoff games against New Albany.
Making contact wasn’t a problem on Thursday, but they couldn’t get back up after taking some early hits. Finch is looking for something different going forward.
“Every time someone has a big inning, we tell the girls ‘You got punched, now punch back,’” he said. “If they get four runs, you can get four runs, and if you can’t get it all back, then just chip away. Stop the bleeding, chip away. We can throw punches, but the other team can punch as well, so we need to match that.”
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