Madison County’s softball team took advantage of nearly every single mistake Eastside made in Saturday’s Group A, Division 1 state semifinal.
Every. Single. One.
“You’ve got to do that at this level,” said Madison coach Jessie Yowell. “If somebody makes a mistake you’ve got to be able to capitalize and make things happen.”
Because they made Eastside pay, and picked up a 4-0 victory, Madison is finally over the hump. After three straight trips to the semifinals, the Mountaineers are finally headed for the state championship game.
“We’ve been talking about it the whole week about how exciting it is to get back here for the third time,” said Madison pitcher Lauren Seale. “To actually win it is amazing.”
Seale struck out eight in the circle against the Spartans, but leaned heavily on a sterling defensive effort behind her, including several big plays by centerfielder Chandler Gentry, who robbed Eastside batters of at least two critical chances that looked bound to drop in.
“She’s fast, that’s why she’s in centerfield and she read the ball well off the bat it seemed like every time,” Yowell said. “She made a couple of huge catches out there.”
Madison got on the board early with a two-run first inning sparked by two Eastside errors that followed a two-out walk put Eastside in an early hole. Seale and Kaitlin Aylor scratched out the runs. The Mountaineers ended the game without an RBI, but kept taking advantage of Eastside’s mistakes, scoring on an error in the third and a passed ball in the fourth. From there, they held on and put Madison back in the final after a nearly two-decade drought for all the school’s girls programs.
“Softball won it in ’95 and I don’t know of any time since then that any girls sport has been in the state final,” Yowell said.
Cagney Shifflett had a big day at the plate for Madison, going 2 for 3 with a double and a single.
The Mountaineers seemed unfazed by the bigger-than-usual stage, a product of building a lot of postseason experience over the past few years.
“Everything was just going with us today,” Seale said.
Now the Mountaineers will get a chance to finish the job Sunday when they take on Honaker at 10 a.m. in Salem.
