Things keep getting better for the Heritage Academy fast-pitch softball team.
Less than two days after clinching a spot in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools overall Class AAA State tournament, the Lady Patriots improved their seeding for next weekend’s event.
Heritage Academy scored six runs in the international tiebreaker to beat Pillow Academy 11-5. Heritage Academy lost to Washington School 10-0 in five innings in its second game of the day to finish third in the Class AAA North State tournament.
Heritage Academy (13-9) will advance to face the Copiah Academy, the No. 2 seed from the South, Saturday at Liberty Park in Flowood. The tournament will be double-elimination. The top four team will advance to Monday’s final day.
First-year Heritage Academy coach Gary Harris said his players continue to show the fight he feels will help the program grow into a contender for state championships. The victory against Pillow Academy avenged a 4-0 loss in the regular season.
“It is really fascinating for me as a coach to watch this,” said Harris, who coached Presbyterian Christian to a state championship. “I have been around a lot of very good teams and this team is so inexperienced when you compare them to some of them we’re playing, and some of the teams we’re going to play this weekend. On the surface, you might think we don’t belong, but these kids don’t realize that. They don’t realize our inexperience should not allow us to be where we are. We have overachieved so much. It has been really neat to see that.”
Against Pillow Academy, the time limit expired in the fifth inning, which invoked the international tiebreaker. Heritage Academy led 2-0 and 5-2 before Pillow Academy rallied. The Lady Patriots had to get two outs with runners on second and third base to force the international tiebreaker.
“Everything went our way,” Harris said.
Heritage Academy scored off a throwing error on a bunt to start the top of the sixth inning, which allowed the runner who started at second base to score from third base.
“We kept chipping away and got some big hits. we did a really good job of just getting outs. It was an exciting win. Our girls did a really good job of responding when lost the lead. I could tell they were a little tense. They felt like it was slipping away from them. They just did a great job of rallying back.”
Now Heritage Academy will have the rest of the week to face off against some of the state’s top teams. Those teams, Harris said, have the kind of tradition Heritage Academy wants to build, so he is eager to have his players face that kind of competition so they can set their sights even higher.
“I think they’re going to get a sense of how we compare to some of the elite AAA teams in the state,” Harris said. “We are so much closer than I thought we would be, and that’s a credit to them. I keep saying we want to get to the state tournament to see what it is like next year, but these kids are so resilient that they might beat a few teams and might be playing for a state championship. It seemed inconceivable at the start of the season, but there are only eight teams left that have a chance to win a state championship in our classification and we are one of theme. That says a lot about how they have overcome that lack of experience.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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