STARKVILLE — It’s playoff time for Starkville Academy softball.
Head coach Lee Berryhill’s team is 13-6 on the season, but it wasn’t always set in stone that they would have the record to make the playoffs.
The Vols lost a 4-3 nail-biter to Oak Hill Academy in the second game of the season, and then lost 6-2 against Calhoun in their fourth game. Both losses came at home, and something changed in the team after that.
“About the fourth game of the season, we made a turn, and the main part was we started competing each and every game and working forward,” Berryhill said. “In the past, we were sort of content to just practice and play, but we started getting better and better. We started winning some games against teams we didn’t normally beat, our confidence increased and it just got better from there.”
The Vols responded with an 11-1 win against Pillow a week later and were off to the races. They avenged their loss to Calhoun with a gut-check 8-6 win on the road and picked up some good results before rattling off six wins in a row at the end of the regular season.
“The girls have done a great job, I’m proud of them,” Berryhill said. “Once the competitive nature kicked in it allowed us to improve. Without that, you can’t fight for what you want, and it means a lot to them. The combination of our age groups is a good mix and they came together in terms of their will to win. The senior leadership has been great for us as well.”
The Vols finished third-place in their division and are set to begin their playoff campaign on Saturday against Simpson Academy. The Cougars are 20-5-1 and won each of their last three games by a margin of 10 or more.
“I think we’ll go down there and compete, and that’s all you can ask for,” Berryhill said of the matchup. “You play the whole season to try and improve and see everything you can see as you go. The main thing is to adjust from game to game to the competition. As kids, it’s hard to teach that, but when they can adjust they’ll be successful. You get in the playoffs, it starts over, so the competition is higher and every game means more. The maturity level is a lot better for our team and it’s allowed us to have a good season.”
The Vols did end the season on a sour note, losing at Winona Christian by one run. The Vols had a chance to mount a comeback after falling in a hole early, but fell just short. It was an effort Berryhill was happy to see though, and he thinks it was the kind of test they needed going into the postseason.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit,” he said of the game. “I told them at the end it’s actually helpful because our last game of the season we had to fight. That’s not a bad thing, and we did fight and give it all we had, we just came up short. Sports is all about momentum, you just try to grab it and hold it as long as you can. We’re excited, our mindset is positive, we want to go out on Saturday and compete.”
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