STARKVILLE — It was a hot, sunny evening on Friday at Starkville Academy, a fitting setting for the start of softball season for the area’s academy teams. Games initially planned at Oak Hill were moved to SA’s turf field because of the rain, which made for a humid evening. 

Still, it was finally the start of the 2024-25 season, and the teams were more than ready to test themselves against another team. 

“Practice gets long and it gets boring,” Vols head coach Lee Berryhill said with a laugh, “so it’s nice to get going. It’s nice too to see where you’re at and how your girls respond.” 

SA and OHA each defeated a young CCA team, winning 19-0 and 17-0, respectively, before facing each other, with the Raiders pulling out a 4-3 win thanks to a full game from pitcher KK Pennington. The eighth grader pitched all six innings and registered four strikeouts. 

OHA coach Lewis Earnest has a young team that had to battle through with mostly underclassmen and middle schoolers last season. They still managed to win 14 games, and this year they’re looking to gain even more experience with the young group, especially Pennington, who is showing ace potential. 

“Practice-wise she’s developing a curve ball and so far she looks good, so we’ll see,” Earnest said of his young pitcher. “It’s hard to tell right now, she’s just an eighth grader, but hopefully she’s growing. She’s solid all around and she plays ball all the time.”

Berryhill is in his fourth year at SA and recently added the title of varsity baseball head coach, but is determined to continue giving his best to softball as well. 

“I was hired for softball and the girls and I have built a relationship,” he said. “We know what to expect from each other and we don’t want to change anything if we can keep it the same.”

His team showed off some firepower in its win, but the loss in the evening will be a reminder that this is the time of year for working through problems and figuring out where the team is as a whole. 

“It’s all about building consistency each and every day,” he said. “Finding consistency in doing what we do and if you can do that you can be successful. 

CCA head coach Leann Shelton has a young team as well, and she had to coach through two tough outings on Friday. She knows it was an experience they needed going forward. She has a roster with a lot of middle schoolers, some of whom were playing the game for the first time. 

 “This is huge. Doing this is better than any practice because they’ve got to see what live game situations are like,” Shelton told The Dispatch. I know it stings because we didn’t even score, but we had a sixth grader up there hitting last and that is the experience that she needed. “Several girls out there haven’t played before and this is the only way they’re going to learn and improve.”