PREP SHOWDOWN: St. James sweeps PCA in battle of softball powers
St. James’ Lily Stanford steals second as PCA SS Paysley Bayer takes the throw in the Trojans’ sweep on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
PRATTVILLE -- Prattville Christian Academy coach Randy Stough sat in the dugout, staring down at the top of his shoes and trying to make sense of what was going on out on the field.
In what was supposed to be the most highly anticipated game of the season for both teams, one of the state’s best Class 3A teams was whipping one of the state’s best Class 4A teams, with more than a little help from the 4A squad.
By the time the doubleheader came to a merciful end, St. James had rolled to a 10-0 and 4-0 sweep and Stough was struggling for the words to describe what he just witnessed.
“We just did not bring the effort and the right mentality to the game today,” he said. “If we continue to do that, our season will be over rather quickly. We’ve got to realize that we have to come with a better attitude and a better mentality for us to be successful in the playoffs.
“I was very disappointed. We showed no grit, no fight today. And that’s not like us. I was taken aback that we didn’t step up and meet this challenge against a good team. We haven’t been on this end of it too many times. It’ll humble you quickly. I’m a little bit stunned.”
St. James coach Mark Hall won for the first time on PCA’s field, so he totally understood the feeling Stough was experiencing on Tuesday.
“I’ve been on that side of a lot of games,” Hall said, “and when things start going wrong, they tend to just continue to go wrong. That’s a good quality softball team. We executed well, our pitchers were on it and our defense made plays. We were not perfect, we’ve got a lot to work on, but I’m happy where we’re at going into the postseason.”
Emily Needham set the tone early, pitching a complete game in a 10-0 win halted by the mercy rule in the sixth inning. Needham struck out 11 batters and allowed only a two-out single in the fourth inning by Kandice Crosby.
“When I congratulate them after wins, I usually start out saying, ‘Great job’ by whoever the pitcher is and ‘great job’ by whoever the catcher is because that’s where it starts,” Hall said. “The two Emilys (Needham and catcher Emily Darby) really work well together and they started this doubleheader off right and set us up to succeed.”
The anticipated matchup of Needham and PCA’s Alivia Messick didn’t go as planned after a pair of third-inning errors turned into a 5-0 lead by the Trojans and Stough responded by pulling his starter and replacing her with seventh grader Colbie Martin and later with freshman Holley Beth Rollan.
He would do the same thing in the second game, replacing Laura Beth NeSmith with seventh grader Addy Messick, Alivia’s younger sister.
“Both my starting pitchers are tired and they showed it,” Stough said, “so I ended up pitching a lot of younger pitchers. Things kind of got a little out of hand, but we didn’t play good defense behind them, either.”
St. James third baseman Tat Shuford and her teammates were eager to face Messick and NeSmith, one of the best pitching tandems the Trojans have seen this season.
“I give props to them, they’re really good pitchers,” said Shuford, who reached base in six of her seven plate appearances. “I just came in with the mindset to just hit the ball, push myself and do what I’ve got to do in the field. But I obviously give credit to them because they’re good players.”
St. James would score five runs in the third inning and five more in the sixth with the help of 11 hits, but the Panthers didn’t help matters with five errors, including back-to-back miscues in the third inning when the catcher didn’t handle the third strike, allowing batters to reach base.
Given an opportunity to respond to the challenge, PCA played the second game almost as poorly as the first. An error in each of the first two innings put NeSmith in a hole early and Peyton Middleton allowed just two singles by PCA batters, both in the second inning.
“The last eight games or so, we’ve been on a pretty good (hitting) tear,” Stough said. “Today was just like a totally different team. I really thought we would have hit the ball better after the first game and answered a little better and we still didn’t.”
Both teams will host their respective area tournaments on Monday. St. James, eagerly anticipating Tuesday’s game, responded in a confident manner.
“I knew we were going to put up a good fight,” Shuford said. “We knew going into the playoff season, the beginning (in the area tournament) wasn’t going to be the toughest but we need to get our mind straight right now so this will be good competition for the upcoming regionals, state, all that, so I was excited for this game to come.
“We’ve been putting in a lot of work and are working so well together. We fight for each other and push for each other. I think us being so tight helps us play so well together on the field.”
Prattville Christian (22-6) will play the winner of Monday’s 4A Area 5 tournament game between Dallas County and Wilcox Central at noon. St. James (30-2) will play Montgomery Academy in the opening round of the 3A Area 6 tournament on Monday.
Hall admits he feels a little better about his team after Tuesday’s sweep.
“I haven’t beaten PCA since I’ve been here and I’ve been here eight years,” he said. “We beat them in a tournament one time. We haven’t beaten them on this field, for sure. Yeah, you circle this game on your schedule every year. You know it’s going to be a challenge and if you win, then you’ve beaten a really good softball team. And if you lose, it’s not the end of the world because they’re good.”