A year after going 15-13 and finishing respectably in the Class AAA state tournament, Winston Academy is getting closer and closer to building a softball power in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools.
A solid week on the fields got the Lady Patriots to a strong 20-4 record this season with a week still to go and they reeled off some wins against solid competition and a couple of losses against state title contenders. It was an overall successful week for head coach Charlie Smith.
WA started the week at East Mississippi Community College where they beat down Oak Hill Academy 23-0 in a quick win. The big game came last Wednesday when they played Leake at home in a district game that could decide the regular season champion.
Trailing 7-4 heading to the fifth inning, things fell apart for the Lady Patriots as they surrendered three runs in the fifth, a run in the sixth and five in the seventh to lose 16-4. Smith couldn’t complain about the early part of the game but defensive miscues were an issue late. Against a senior-heavy group, his young ones didn’t quite play well enough to overcome them.
“We’ve played some good defense all year and only had 12 errors as a team going into that game against Leake and we made seven in that game. They’re an older team that we want to beat really bad and we played in front of probably the biggest crowd for a softball game at Winston. Our youth caused us to get caught up in everything and for about the fourth, fifth and sixth (inning) we didn’t play well,” Smith said.
“It’s a learning moment for us and a teaching moment for me. We’re doing everything to build a program and it’s coming. I don’t know many people that would be unhappy with being 20-4 especially with sixth eighth graders and a ninth grader starting.”
Over the weekend, Smith and the Lady Pats hosted a quick tournament in Louisville where WA got to play two more good teams. The Lady Pats were able to knock off Canton Academy in five innings in the first game with a 5-4 win and they lost 2-1 against Bayou Academy, a team that Smith believes is a state title contender.
To get WA to 3-2 over the last week against teams, they traveled to Starkville for district competition against the Lady Volunteers. The Lady Pats saw Anna Grace Whitehead and Morgan Woods combine for a no-hitter as they rolled in a 19-0 shutout in three innings.
WA pounded out 15 hits, including five doubles, in the win led by Madi Lee who had a 3-for-3 day with two doubles and two RBI. Coley Disbrow was 3-for-4 with two RBI and they got two hits from Woods and two from Whitehead who had two RBI each. Laura Vowell led the team with three RBI in her two-hit performance.
On the year, Whitehead is now 15-3 with 100.2 innings pitched, 81 hits, 30 earned runs, 124 strikeouts, 38 walks and a 2.13 earned run average as an eighth grader. She also leads the regular starters with a .458 batting average. Fellow eighth graders Nat Eaves and Mayson Smith are batting .455 and .429 respectively.
It’s another big week for the Lady Pats this week as they played district foe East Rankin on Tuesday. If they won by three runs or more in that game they clinch a No. 2 finish in the district. They go to Magee this weekend to play in the Jackson Prep tournament and then will finish out the regular season at Leake on Monday.
The first concern for Smith is Tuesday night.
“East Rankin has a great team who starts seven seniors. I felt like we should have won that game at their place, we’ll see what we can do with them at home,” Smith said of East Rankin.
