It was a frustrating play for Madison County. The Mountaineers were inches away from escaping a harrowing jam created by Holston catcher Megan Honaker’s sixth inning single, steal and a move to third base.
Then Holston pitcher Morgan Lowe’s low liner to short bounced off the ground and a quick throw to third and a tag of the bag didn’t matter because the umpire ruled the near double play ball a grounder. Still, Madison was tied with the Cavaliers and could conceivably still get out of the inning.
But it was the confusion that followed that helped end Madison’s season with a 4-1 loss in the VHSL Group A Division 1 softball semifinal.
“That was really a killer,” said Madison coach Jesse Yowell. “To me it should’ve been dead. It was a heads up play (by Holston).”
The game slowed to a stop, but Honaker seemed to realize that time hadn’t been called. As Madison tried to sort the play out, Honaker dashed home and slid in uncontested as a throw sailed high toward the backstop.
“Megan is just instinctive on the bases, she’s done that for us for four years,” said Holston coach Lisa Blackburn. “Last year when we beat Bath in the region she did the very same thing just about. She just knows where to go when she’s on base.”
In the next at-bat, Holston sophomore Amelia Wampler unleashed a shot over the leftfield fence, a two-run homerun that put Holston up 4-1 with Madison left with just two innings to extend the game. Madison put a couple of runners on in the sixth and seventh including Lauren Seale’s second two-out double of the game, but Madison couldn’t bring anyone around, falling for the second straight year in the state semifinals.
“I think we’ve got a bright future with seven freshmen and five sophomores,” Yowell said. “We’re real young and a lot of freshmen play and a lot of sophomores play.”
Seale, Madison’s sophomore pitcher, put together a terrific performance with the 2 for 3 night at the plate, and a 13-strikeout outing in the circle.
“She struck out our whole lineup and we’ve never had that happen all year long,” Blackburn said. “And one right after another.”
Kaitlin Aylor also had a 2 for 3 night at the plate for the Mountaineers in a solid performance by the sophomore.
Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, Lowe matched Seale nearly pitch for pitch, getting it done with a completely different style. The Cavaliers’ senior leaned on creating ground ball after ground ball, striking out just three while inducing a slew of groundball outs including the game ending double play. She fielded her position well late too, recording five of the final six putouts of the game for Holston.
“She was hitting her spots really well today and she changed speeds a little bit and maybe kept them a little bit off balanced,” Blackburn said. “And we played good defense today too.”
The Cavaliers will go toe-to-toe with a familiar foe in the state final Saturday as Holston takes on Bath County, who they fell to 5-4 in the Region C final last week.
