Going the other way proved to be the right way for the Neshoba Central High School slow-pitch softball team.
Undaunted by the wind that was blowing out to right field, Neshoba Central stuck to its game plan and drove as many balls as it could to the right side. The strategy paid impressive dividends Saturday as Neshoba Central beat New Hope 12-1 and 14-4 at Lady Trojan Field to sweep its best-of-three Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A/6A North State playoff series.
The victories push Neshoba Central (31-1), the defending Class 5A state champion in slow pitch and fast pitch, into the North State championship series against Clinton, which swept Columbus on Saturday.
“We work other way all year,” Neshoba central coach Trae Embry said. “If you go back on last year’s games, we still work this way (to right field), maybe not as much, but we have been working on it all year and they have really bought into it.”
Even though the Lady Rockets have multiple hitters capable of hitting home runs, Embry said the team prefers to hit line drives and capitalize on its team speed and baserunning. He said hits the other ways often can go for two or three bases if placed correctly, which the lady Rockets did in both games. Kaila Willis hit the team’s only home run in Game 2. Thirteen of the team’s hits in Game 1 were singles. They had 11 more singles in Game 2.
Embry said his team gained some of the confidence it needed early in the 2012 season. He said the three-game series victory last season against New Hope that sent it on to the state title series helped the team believe in itself even more. The Lady Rockets then went on to win a fast-pitch championship. Still, Embry said it has been a process to get the players to believe in themselves and the game plan.
“Now that is not an obstacle,” Embry said. “That is something we have overcome and when we show up we believe we are going to compete with everybody we play. They have bought into everything I try to get the players to buy into in slow pitch and in fast pitch.”
Junior shortstop Hailey Lunderman is the ideal player to ignite the Lady Rockets’ attack. While the rest of her teammates were going to the right side, Lunderman, who hits left-handed, stroked the ball to left field. She had two singles in Game 1 and added three more in the clincher, including a double. She credits Embry for pushing the team in the right direction.
“We have always wanted to win a state championship, even before he came,” Lunderman said. “He came and he did his job and we did our job.
“He just guides us and we have to perform. He works a lot with our confidence. We hit a lot of balls every day. We work a bunch on hitting the ball to right field.”
New Hope, which lost to Neshoba Central in slow pitch and fast pitch last season in the North State playoffs, saw its season end at 20-4.
New Hope loses seniors D.J. Sanders, Kaitlyn Bradley, R.J. James, Taylor Blevins, and Kaydi Woolbright to graduation. The players are expected to be back on the diamond next year for fast-pitch season. New Hope coach Tabitha Beard hopes the latest losses to Neshoba Central serve as motivation for that season.
“I think we can learn more from what we saw than what we did,” Beard said. “We have to be more consistent at the plate. That is what we have worked on more than anything. The errors killed us. We had errors from eighth-graders to seniors. We can’t point a finger at that and the babies (the younger players) because our older girls made just as many mistakes as our younger girls.”
New Hope had just three hits in Game 1, which ended after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule, and only three in Game 2, which ended after four and a half innings. The big blow for the Lady Trojans was a two-run home run in the second inning by Kerrington Jones. Fittingly, the left-handed hitting first baseman homered to right field, the shortest part of the fence at Lady Trojans Field.
Sanders, who hit leadoff for New Hope, received five intentional walks and didn’t take a swing. New Hope returned the favor to No. 3 hitter Katlyn Duke, who was walked eight times. She scored four runs.
Embry didn’t feel the Lady Rockets hit the ball as well as the could even though they had 15 hits in each game. Neshoba Central stranded 12 runners and left the bases loaded three times in Game 1.
Beard said patience was the Lady Rockets’ biggest weapon in the sweep. On the flip side, she lamented the fact the Lady Trojans were anxious and reached for pitches and tried to pull them instead of going to right field with outside pitches.
“I think a lot of that was nerves, and those babies were nervous,” Beard said. “But we also had older players who were shut down as well. We just had to step up, and I think a lot of it was nerves that kind of played a big role in it.
“We did a lot of things that are very unusual for us, but I can’t take anything away from them. They just hit the ball, and they’re good. We knew we had to be great and we made too many mistakes and didn’t hit.”
Aside from past New Hope teams, Beard said she hasn’t seen a team go the opposite way as well as Neshoba Central. She credited the Lady Rockets for having the patience to wait for the right pitches on a windy day and not trying to jack the ball to the shorter right-field porch.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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