Saraland fights to the end but falls to Helena in Class 6A softball finals

 

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

OXFORD — Saraland softball coach Donna Sunnycalb felt her team had been dismissed as a state championship contender from the beginning of the season, so clutching the Red Map after losing to Helena 5-3 in Friday’s Class 6A finals shouldn’t have been a massive disappointment.

Yet, the tearful, No. 4-ranked Spartans lingered in left field — as if they couldn’t believe the game and their season was over — long after the last flyout sent the Huskies hurtling into a celebratory pile in the infield of Choccolocco Park’s Signature Stadium.

That is because Saraland had grown accustomed to defying the odds and, as it had done throughout the playoffs, refused to accept defeat easily. The Spartans, who finished 39-14-1, had to win four games in one day in the South Regional, then once in Oxford battled through the losers bracket — as it had to do in its previous championship-round appearance in 2018 — and, trailing 5-1 going into the last inning, suddenly made tournament MVP and Helena pitcher Carrington Scheefer seem to be throwing batting practice.

Scheefer had twirled a three-hit shutout after five innings and reduced the Spartans to a series of 11 popouts and flyouts before they rallied for a run in the sixth and two more in the seventh.

“That right there just tells you what kind of kids we have and what kind of character they have,” a somber Sunnycalb said as she held the Red Map. “We just didn’t hit until the last inning. It was just too late in the ballgame but for them to not give up shows you what kind of kids they are, just how resilient they are, how much they’ve had to persevere for this whole season. The past two weeks, we’ve had to play a double-elimination tournament. In one day, they played ball for twelve hours, then we come up here and draw four-and-a half hours and we go through two hard days. It was an awesome job managing that. Everybody wants a Blue Map. Why are you coaching if you’re not looking for a Blue Map? But to take home the Red Map back to Saraland, there’s nothing to hang our heads about.”

No. 7 Helena (35-15-2), which beat Saraland 3-2 Thursday, built a 5-0 lead after four innings but the Spartans broke through in the sixth when Kori Simmons singled in a run and Saraland saw the inning end on a bang-bang double play when it was poised to do more damage.

Courtesy runner Jadyn Byrd got caught between first and second base with one out and was thrown out on an 8-6-3 relay after Myleigh Dobbins flied out to center field.

In the seventh, the Spartans whacked four straight two-out hits, with Bryleigh Goff and Gracie Dees singling in a pair of runs, before Kyla Reed flied out to center field to end the game.

“I would describe us as the comeback girls,” said Dees, the leadoff batter, senior shortstop and South Alabama signee who hit .558 in the postseason with eight RBIs and 33 total bases and was one of the cornerstones of the team. “We never lay down. We laugh in the face of fear. The game’s never over until it’s over. We started to settle down. We knew, hey, so what? Let’s have fun and just do what we can do.”

Sunnycalb said her four seniors — Dees, Olivia Ray, Simmons and Adilyn Hartley — have contributed to a legacy that she believes will one day bring a Blue Map to Saraland.

“The four seniors that we’ve had have done an amazing job leading this team to where we are today,” she said. “I’m sure that nobody expected us to be here but they stepped up, they came together at the right time and I’m thankful that we’re here. I just feel like from the beginning of the season that (nobody) really even put us on the map until later on in the season. We kept that in our back pocket and just worked on being a better team for ourselves and just working on our weaknesses and stuff.”

Sunnycalb, who has taken the Spartans to seven state tournaments and is 325-173 in 12 seasons, said Saraland will eventually win a Blue Map.

“I think so,” she said. “The last time we’ve actually played in this game was in 2018 and again we had to battle through six games in one day. I’m glad the AHSAA has helped us out on the format of the tournament so that it’s not as grueling as it used to be. There’s four seniors graduating, three of those are starters, and the rest of them are tenth graders and some juniors. What those four seniors have done is created that legacy and that culture that everybody else has got to jump on board with. We started an eighth-grade catcher (Emily Claire Ready) and I just hope that they get hungry for this and every single year that they’re fighting for this feeling right here.”

Despite the wearying path softball teams must take to win a state championship, Sunnycalb said changing the playoffs to best-of-three series might not be the best solution.

“Softball is a tournament sport and so unless you’re changing the format of that, I don’t know that the best of three is the right way,” she said. “You know, we could do it more like the College World Series and do it like for a whole week and then make your championship series best of three but I don’t have the answers. I know it’s been a tough two weeks for my kids and I’m just proud of where they are today.

“You have to think last week, Myleigh Dobbins threw almost four-hundred pitches in one day, had a couple of days rest and then we had to get back to practice and over this tournament, she threw three-and-a half, four games, That’s tough for anybody, not just on the arm, that’s on the whole body. And mentally, you’ve got to be locked in. It’s not just a physical thing, it’s a mental thing.”

Starter Laken Bryan took the loss, giving up two unearned runs on five hits in three innings. Dees allowed another earned run in 1.2 innings of relief and Dobbins finished with 1.1 scoreless innings.

Scheefer had three hits and an RBI for Helena and pitched a complete game for the win, allowing two earned runs and eight hits with no walks.

Dees and Simmons had two hits each.