By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
OXFORD – It’s been six years since the Spring Garden softball team played more than three games at the state softball tournament.
It’s been a goal of this year’s seven Lady Panther seniors to reach the second day, and they had that opportunity in front of them on Wednesday at Oxford’s Choccolocco Park in the Class 1A state tournament.
Things got off to a rocky start for the Lady Panthers. Uncharacteristic errors cost them their first game against second-ranked Hackleburg in an 18-5 defeat in six innings, but the Lady Panthers managed to shake off that rough outing against No. 7 Maplesville, winning 8-3.
Spring Garden then took down top-ranked Ider for the second time in less than a week with a 12-4 victory, which secured its spot in the Final Four.
Ninth-ranked Spring Garden (21-12-2) will battle No. 6 Woodland on Thursday morning at 9 a.m. The winner will take on No. 4 Kinston at 10:45 a.m.
“It’s just a good feeling to know all the hard work we’ve put in has gotten us this much closer to the state game,” senior catcher Maggie Jarrett said. “My mindset is we’re here for a purpose. We’ve been here from seventh (grade) up. Our goal is to win it our last year, make history at our school. Like I’ve been saying, we’ve got some unfinished business.”
Just how determined was Jarrett to give her team the chance to play on Thursday?
Against Ider, she went 3-for-4 with a pair of triples, scored three runs and had a RBI. Jarrett also did her part defensively by throwing out a pair of runners, including her second at third base against the Lady Hornets on a snap throw that caught Julie Mavity leaning a little too far off to end the bottom of the second inning.
Jarrett did the same thing in last week’s East Regional at Albertville against Cali Whitaker in the bottom of the fourth inning.
“You’ve got to give it to Liv (third baseman Olivia Law) for making that tag, at regionals and here,” Jarrett said. “They were trying to be aggressive. We’ve been doing that all season, working on the throw to third. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen that way. I’ve just got to read who’s on third in those moments. Props to our defense for being behind me.”
Jarrett wasn’t the only determined Lady Panther to punch the team’s ticket to Thursday morning. Senior shortstop Helena Ingram was 2-for-4 at the plate including an inside-the-park homer to left field in the top of the third that put Spring Garden up 2-0.
Jarrett’s second triple helped put the Lady Panthers up 3-0 in the fourth, but then Spring Garden opened the flood gates in the fifth. The Lady Panthers sent 10 batters to the plate and scored seven runs to take a 10-0 lead.
Law led off with a triple to right center. Addie Word added a run-scoring single. Rylie Ham had a two-run double and Kylie Bates belted a two-run triple for the big hits of the inning.
Ider attempted to rally against Spring Garden senior pitcher Avery Steward in the bottom of the fifth by scoring four unearned runs, but it was too little too late.
Against Maplesville, Law tripled and drove in three runs for the Lady Panthers. Helena and Layla Ingram, Jarrett and Word each had a pair of hits.
Steward allowed just a pair of earned runs in the bottom of the first on three hits to pick up the win.
In the loss to Hackleburg, Hackleburg built an 11-0 advantage in the third inning before Spring Garden tried to make a game of it.
The Lady Panthers scored four runs on back-to-back two-run singles by Jarrett and Word to make it an 11-4 game, but Hackleburg kept on answering.
Hackleburg scored single runs in the top of the fourth and fifth, and batted around for five runs in the sixth to put the game out of reach.
Steward and Layla Ingram both went 2-for-3 at the plate. Jarrett, Word, Helena Ingram and Bates each had a hit. Helena Ingram also walked.
Steward suffered the loss in the circle after working two innings.
Spring Garden coach Ann Welsh said she was proud of how well Spring Garden shook off the Hackleburg loss.
“We just talked about putting that game behind us and moving on with the path that we created,” she said. “We knew we had to play three (games) no matter what today. It just so happened we had to fight for the last two.
“It’s been a while since we’ve made it to that second day. The past two or three years we’ve been beaten out the first day. That’s something big for us. These girls have been talking about that, what it takes to get to that second day. They were determined to do that.”
“It was just really important to us,” Helena Ingram said. “We’ve kept that in our minds and we kept pushing for it. Now that we’re going to the second day, we’re thinking about winning a state championship. It’s one game at a time.”
Welsh is hoping that determination carries over for four more games on Thursday.
“It’s a new day now. It’s anybody’s game,” she said. “It’s been a minute since we’ve done this. I’m just glad they can experience that.”
