By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
ALBERTVILLE – Out of all the players on this year’s Spring Garden softball team, only Addie Word and Paisley Woodall had started the previous season, and Kylie Bates came in to hit at times.
But the rest of this year’s Lady Panther squad was completely new to the regional tournament experience.
The match-ups Spring Garden had on Tuesday weren’t in their favor either. The Lady Panthers faced two teams who were ranked in the Alabama Sports Writers Association final top 10 of the season. Ider was ranked sixth and Meek came in at No. 4.
However, Spring Garden played like a team that had been there before early on against Ider in their Class 1A East Regional opener at Albertville’s Sand Mountain Park. The Lady Panthers scored two runs in the top of the first inning to take an early lead, but Ider blew the game open with a 13-run bottom of the fourth to take a 16-3 victory in five innings.
The Lady Panthers’ season ended to Meek in the losers bracket by the final of 11-1 in five innings.
Despite Tuesday’s results, Spring Garden head coach Ann Welsh said she’s proud of how far this year’s team has come along.
“I think it’s one of those things where you have to experience it (regionals) in order to get better,” Welsh said. “It’s just a step up when you get here. There’s a little more pressure. The mental game is a little bit more important I think. But being here and having the experience should carry us maybe one more step next year.”
In the loss to Ider, the three players that had regional experience each had a hit. Word and Bates were both 1-for-3 with a run. Word also drove in a run. Woodall went 1-for-1 with a walk.
Kendall Birchfield suffered the loss. She worked three innings and allowed five earned runs on 10 hits with two walks and a strikeout.
Olivia Messer worked an inning of relief and didn’t allow an earned run. She gave up two hits and a walk.
Against Meek, Bates led the Lady Panthers (12-23) by going 2-for-2 with a walk and a run. Woodall was 1-for-2, and Maya Jennings walked twice.
Birchfield suffered the loss again, this time after tossing 4 2/3 innings and allowing four earned runs on seven hits with five walks and two strikeouts.
“Now they know what it takes (to get to regionals),” Welsh said. “Next year, you start building on the fact that we’ve been here and done it, but I’m proud we made it. I’m proud of how hard they’ve worked all year long and the improvements that we’ve made since the beginning. I told them we’ve come through a lot of injuries and other things teams don’t normally have to go through to play ball, but they fought through it to get here.”
