HAMILTON — Bryan Loague figured the 2017 season was going to be a little different for the Hamilton High School slow-pitch softball team.
After winning a state championship in 2016, Hamilton and the rest of the state faced a new look after the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) switched from a five-classification breakdown of teams and instituted a three-class format (Class I, II, and III). As reigning Class 1A State champion, Hamilton found itself as one of 53 teams in the smallest classification, Class I.
Bundled with several new opponents and faced with the prospects of having to replace several key contributors from the 2016 season, Loague wasn’t sure how things were going to go for the Lions.
That doesn’t mean Loague’s expectations of winning another state title decreased in the slightest.
In fact, Loague had a good feeling about Hamilton’s chances of winning it all again in part because his program always plays the best teams possible. He felt that way even though Hamilton played Enterprise (Clarke) in Game 1 of the best-of-three state title series Saturday morning.
“Saturday scared me,” Loague said. “We lost five ballgames and four of them were on Saturday. Three of them were before lunch on Saturday.”
Loague’s concerns proved to be unfounded, as Hamilton defeated Enterprise (Clarke) 11-5 and 12-5 Saturday to win the Class I State Championship at Freedom Ridge Park in Ridgeland.
For its accomplishment, the Hamilton High slow-pitch softball team is The Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
“We didn’t play extremely well,” Loague said. “We didn’t play terrible. If we would have played our second round or our North Half series either way the way we played down there, we wouldn’t have survived in the second round, and we probably wouldn’t have survived North Half.”
Hamilton, the Region 4 champion, beat Falkner, Pine Grove, Ingomar, and East Webster to reach the state title series.
Hamilton also won the Class 1A State slow-pitch title in 2016. It is the fourth state championship Loague has been a part of as a coach at the school. He served as an assistant coach to Lewis Earnest when the team won the crown in 2012. He also led the team to a state title in 2013.
Hamilton also won slow-pitch championships in 1992-94 (Class 1A) and 2004 and 2009 (Class 2A).
This season, Hamilton rolled to a 30-5 record thanks to an offense that hit .489 and drilled 116 home runs. Hannah Rooks (24 home runs), Tori Harrison (23), Faith Fontenot (21), Taylor Brock (16), and Anna Claire Stahl (15) led the Lions in that category.
“In our top 10 there wasn’t a drop-off,” Loague said. “Our top five all hit .500 or better and had 15 home runs. Eight of our top 10 hit .437 or better. It was pretty steady all the way through the lineup.”
But Loague said the team’s ability to deliver hits one through 10 in the batting order was its strength. The strength of the lineup helped it avoid slumps for nearly the whole season. The only hiccups were two losses to Nettleton.
Loague saw the same potential for problems Saturday. He said the Lions left 11 runners in scoring position through the first six innings. Loague said the Lions had one big inning and had some timely hits but not enough for his comfort level despite getting 19 hits.
Hamilton hit three home runs on the bigger field at Freedom Ridge Park. Loague said the fields had 250-foot temporary fences.
Loague said seniors Abby Coleman (pitcher), Brock (shortstop), and Rooks (left field) helped set the tone in a program with 30 players. No. 9 hitter Jayden Ray also had a big championship Saturday with three hits in Game 1.
“Workouts this summer were huge,” Loague said. “You could just tell, especially from our older bunch. They focused and worked hard all summer looking forward to Oct. 21 because they knew that is where they wanted to be.”
A year ago, Loague said the players put 10-22-16 on the backs of their team T-shirts because they had that much confidence they would reach their championship goal.
This season, Loague said the team didn’t use the same approach but it still worked out on a team with four juniors and three sophomores. That means the future should be bright for a program that is accustomed to reloading. One look at the softball program’s field and the hitting facility it shares with the baseball program and it’s easy to see why Loague’s expectations have remained high, even if he wasn’t sure what to expect from a new road to the state championship series.
“Nobody is going to expect more out of ourselves and out of our team than me and coach (Curry) Freeman,” Loague said. “We push them and expect them to be their best every day. If you don’t expect that as coaches, you can’t get kids to expect that. It is an expectation, but we put more expectations on ourselves than everybody else does.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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