STARKVILLE — District play is well underway for Starkville Academy softball, taking on a Pillow Academy team that came into Tuesday’s game hovering around the .500 mark.
Sitting at 2-3 in district, a win would have gotten the Volunteers back to .500 while extending their overall winning record, but the third inning led to a much different outcome.
A cast of errors behind starter Calliope Koiva allowed five Pillow runs, turning a 2-2 game into a 7-2 game, and despite a late seventh-inning comeback, the Vols came up short in an 8-4 loss.
“Calliope did a great job in the circle for us tonight,” Starkville Academy head coach Lee Berryhill said. “She made great pitches, got them to roll over ground balls and we didn’t make plays.”
Now 2-4 in district play, Starkville Academy (8-4) needed a jolt in this ongoing late-season playoff push.
A two-run answer after Pillow’s two-run first inning looked to be that momentum swing, but the Vols weren’t able to capitalize off it.
“In that one inning, we had about four, five errors,” Berryhill said. “The first inning we had one or two, but we limited it in the first inning. We came back, tied it up, got momentum back with us, and then we had those errors.”
Even after Pillow’s third-inning run-scoring parade, Starkville had chances to chip away at the lead, getting runners on in later innings, but were unable to put them across.
Then came the seventh inning, with the Vols down 8-2 and their backs against the wall.
The Vols didn’t panic, getting two runners on for Koiva, who hit a rocket down the left-field line to the wall for a two-run double with no outs.
“I think that really pumped us up because we started off at the top of the lineup in the seventh,” Koiva said.
SA appeared poised to continue the rally, but with two on and two outs, the rally came up short in the end.
The Vols look to get back on track on Thursday in Lexington with a doubleheader against Central Holmes Christian.
“We always have a little fight left in us,” Koiva said. “It might not look like it, but we still have it in the back of our brains that we can come back anytime, it doesn’t really matter.”
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