AHSAA SOFTBALL: St. James cruises to Central Regional title
Emily Needham led St. James to the Class 3A Central regional title and onto the state tournament. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
There was nothing magical about St. James’ journey through the Central Regional this week.
The Trojans shut out Indian Springs and Beulah on Wednesday, then fought off the rain and Alabama Christian on Thursday to become the first qualifier for the state tournament in the 3A Central Regional at Lagoon Park Softball Complex.
St. James (36-2) will face Piedmont (24-10) in the opening round of the 3A state tournament in Oxford on Thursday at 10:45 a.m.
“From last year to this year, it’s all about taking the next step,” St. James coach Mark Hall said. “One of those steps is Qualifier One. That was one of our goals we set, to get the Q1, going to Oxford which sets you up in a better spot.
“Now we can set our sights on Oxford and improving our finish last year. The goal is a state championship. That’s the goal and we’re going to go at it as hard as we can.”
The 2023 Trojans earned their first trip to the state tournament in 14 years as the second qualifier out of the regional, but were disappointed with a fifth-place finish that included just one win and a lopsided loss to exit the tournament.
After losing just two seniors off of last year’s team, the goal was to return to the state tournament as a legitimate championship contender in their 12th appearance. The only thing left standing in the way on Thursday morning was a rebuilding Alabama Christian Academy team, the Trojans’ area rival.
The Trojans gave up a first-inning run on an error, then attacked the Eagles with a vengeance, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring eight runs in the first inning. A pair of back-to-back singles plated another run in the second inning and an error allowed an unearned run to score in the third, but for the most part the Trojans seemed content to coast to an 11-6 victory.
“About the second or third inning, we kicked it into cruise control,” Hall said, “and to ACA’s credit, they didn’t stop playing. With the stop and start because of the rain, I just think we got comfortable and you can’t do that with a quality team that can hit the softball.”
ACA ace Izzy Warrick, who had pitched 10 innings on Wednesday afternoon, didn’t pitch against the Trojans as the Eagles turned to Maddie Owens in the first inning. St. James drove in runs with five consecutive batters in a seven-hit attack and brought Maddie Traywick to the circle in the second inning.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” Hall said. “I’ve seen Izzy pitch two or three or four games in a row. You just don’t know. But right before the game, I tried to prep them the best I could when I found out Maddie Owens was pitching and we made the adjustment pretty quick. And we needed every one of those runs when it came down to the end.”
Traywick allowed back-to-back singles by Lily Stanford and Emily Darby in the second inning that scored a run and a Tat Shuford home run in the sixth but retired 15 of the 20 batters she would face.
Traywick, meanwhile, reached base in all four plate appearances, including a home run in the fifth and an RBI single in the sixth. The Eagles scored two more runs in the fourth inning on an RBI double by Campbell Hammett and Lilly Sconyers, but it was too late to stop the Trojans in their quest for a regional championship.