WARNER ROBINS – Beach vacation plans put on hold due to all-star season can now be booked.
The Madison County Little League softball all-stars won’t be trekking to the regional championships in West Virginia after a 6-1 loss to Warner Robins in the state finals Friday.
“We pushed them to the ‘if (necessary) game’ and thought we were going to get them, but they were a good team,” manager Jay Pridgen said.
Another second-place finish was bittersweet — perhaps more bitter than sweet — for a Madison County team with designs on winning the state title that eluded them last year. Madison County fell 7-1 to Pioneer Little League in the finals a year ago.
This time around, Madison County fell behind 6-0 in the championship game before plating its only run in the final inning. The team, which included seven players off last year’s runner-up squad, was held to three hits.
“It seemed like every hard ball we hit … it seemed like they held on to it,” Pridgen said.
Friday’s contest was the rubber match between the two most dominant teams at the state Little League softball tournament.
Madison County fell to host Warner Robins 3-1 July 21, but rallied out of the losers’ bracket and beat Warner Robins 6-4 in a marathon 10-inning game July 23, forcing the “if necessary” game Friday.
The teams were then deadlocked at 0-0 for the first three innings in the decisive contest.
Madison County squandered an opportunity in the bottom of the second, putting runners at first and second with no outs, but failing to score.
But Warner Robins misfired, too, stranding five runners during the first three frames. It also saw a baserunner gunned down in the fourth inning after a well-timed relay from centerfielder Jorden Williams to shortstop Brianne Carr to third baseman Kristen Moran.
But Warner Robins, which had nine hits, ended the scoreless tie later that inning with a two-out RBI single.
The District 5 champions then piled on five more scores in the fifth to put Madison County away.
“They were a well-coached, well-managed, well-hitting team,” Pridgen said. “I think that’s what gave them the upper hand in the end.”
Pridgen added that Warner Robins has a strong talent pool from which to draw in Houston County.
“There are six middle schools they pull girls off of; we’ve got one,” Pridgen said.
Pridgen’s team didn’t go quietly before the final out, however, on Friday.
After getting on the scoreboard in the final inning, Madison County loaded the bases with one out before Warner Robins eventually retired the side.
“Bases loaded in the end and they were still pushing forward,” Pridgen said of his team’s late-game surge. “They just couldn’t get it to click.”
Despite falling short of a state title, Madison County enjoyed another prolific summer in the Little League softball ranks, going 7-2, winning another District 7 championship and outscoring its foes by an aggregate 93-15.
“They were upset, of course, but they realized they had a long run,” Pridgen said. “They beat every team in the state except that one.”
Of course, this group won’t rest for long.
Pridgen noted that every player on the roster except one will turn her attention to the middle school softball team, which is under the direction of new coach Phillip Archer.
“They’ve been practiced plenty,” Pridgen said. “He’s going to have a team that’s ready to jump on the field and start winning some ball games.”
