PHEBA — After the Starkville Academy softball team stranded two runners in the top of the third inning of Monday’s game at Hebron Christian School, the Volunteers’ Browning Hughes gathered her teammates in the visiting dugout.
“‘We’re still in this,'” the sophomore second baseman reminded the Vols, who trailed 2-1. “We’re not out of it.'”
Starkville Academy quickly proved her right.
Hughes said her team gets motivation from every run it scores, so when Fallon Parker led off the fourth with a single and scored after Hebron’s catcher misfired trying to catch Parker stealing, the game was tied and the Vols had the jump-start they needed.
Sure, Hebron helped out with a grab bag of miscues — allowing a batter to reach on a dropped third strike, a hit by pitch and an error were some of them — but Starkville Academy came out of the fourth inning with a 6-2 lead and all the momentum they could ask for.
So it wasn’t surprising when the Vols came back out for the top of the fifth, scored nine more runs and effectively put the game away. Starkville Academy (3-2) beat Hebron 16-6 on the run rule in six innings to claim its third straight win.
“One’s an accident,” Vols coach Lee Berryhill said. “Two’s lucky. Three’s a winning streak.”
Berryhill said his hitters — many of them are Hughes’ grade level or younger — are starting to catch on to his offensive philosophy: swing aggressively with no strikes or one strike and protect with two. Above, all just put the ball in play and make opposing players get you out, Berryhill stresses.
A combined 50 runs in their past two contests — Starkville Academy won 34-14 at Oak Hill Academy on Thursday — is a good sign the Vols are achieving what their coach wanted.
But Berryhill said some of the minor things he wants his team to do aren’t quite there yet.
Take the bottom of the fifth, which Starkville Academy entered with a 15-2 lead. Instead of closing out the game on the 10-run mercy rule right then and there and preserving pitcher Calliope Koiva’s arm, the Vols allowed four straight runs and let the contest continue.
“We’re still learning the game within the game — the little things,” Berryhill said. “We don’t understand all that yet.”
Hebron coach Rease Gairhan credited his Eagles (1-3) for making a run in the fifth inning, but naturally, he wished it had come before things went south.
“If we would have stopped the snowball effect those two innings before, we would have been right in it,” Gairhan said.
Still, he’s happy to see Hebron’s offense rounding into form. The Eagles finally looked capable at the plate Friday in their lone win, a 7-1 victory over Calhoun Academy, and Gairhan hopes to see more of the same from his team.
“I did like to see them fight back at that one point,” he said of the fifth-inning comeback. “Even though it was a little too late, at least we tried to put something together — better than just completely going down.”
But while the Eagles’ fielding was its best unit in its first three games, it was more than lacking Monday. Time after time, fly balls clanked off gloves; ground balls rolled away from fielders. One high fly into right center glanced off center fielder Paityn Fulgham’s glove and hit her in the face, allowing two runs to score and causing a brief delay. (Fulgham was OK.)
Gairhan also said he didn’t like how the team watched too many Koiva pitches sail by for strikes and lamented the struggles of Eagles starter Aubrey Eaton and reliever Reese Williams to hit their spots from the circle.
“It was a tough game today,” said Eaton, a junior who drove in Hebron’s first two runs at the plate.
Eaton said hitting her targets is one of the main things she wants to improve, and Gairhan hopes that betterment and more can be delivered in time for today’s home game against Kemper Academy at 6 p.m.
Starkville Academy also has a quick turnaround, hosting Kirk Academy at 6 p.m. today. The Vols can win their fourth straight and build on a sudden momentum swing that doesn’t come around too often.
“It’s great,” Hughes said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had that streak.”
Other scores
Winona Christian 13, Oak Hill Academy 1
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.