By Daniel Schmidt
LOACHAPOKA — The Loachapoka High School softball team’s season ended in the 2A Central Regional Tournament with consecutive losses.
The Lady Indians (6-10) fell 15-0 to Central Coosa County High School (3-18) and 31-16 to Central-Hayneville (5-8) at Montgomery’s Lagoon Park Softball Complex on May 13.
Despite the losses, LHS head coach Hope Felton said her team made Loachapoka proud with their willingness to compete until the final out.
“I’m very proud of them. We were able to finish the season, and that was the main goal regardless of how it may have ended,” Felton said. “We put up a good fight throughout both games, and we should have won one of the two. But outside of that, they fought, they came back when they were in a hole.”
With the Lady Indians slowly becoming more of a mainstay in the regional tournament, Felton said that the experience will help her younger players realize they belong.
“It’s a great opportunity for kids in our area, in rural schools, because this opportunity doesn’t come but once in a lifetime,” Felton said. “This experience gives us a good opportunity for the girls that are younger to realize, ‘Oh, we can make it to the playoffs,’ because we’re predominantly Black and most of the time you see mainly Caucasians [playing] softball. So this is a great opportunity for them to realize that although we are our own color and own culture, we still can make it in the playoffs along with everybody else.”
Even with the lopsided scorelines, there were plenty of bright spots for LHS. In Game 2 against CHHS, Jada Ware recorded an RBI triple, Maria Ramirez notched an RBI double and two-RBI single and Jessica Rojas tallied a two-RBI double and an RBI single.
In total, the Lady Indians finished with 11 RBIs that came on nine hits, with Ramirez accounting for three runs and three RBIs, Rojas inking a run and three RBIs on the statsheet and Syeltha Payne putting up two runs and two RBIs.
LHS also displayed alert baserunning and more disciplined hitting in the batter’s box, with five runs coming from stolen base attempts, unsuccessful throwouts or bases-loaded walks.
With her three remaining seniors leading the charge, Felton thanked them for their efforts and their dedication to the program and their self-improvement.
“They’ve been committed to working hard, coming to practice, even practicing outside of practice to work on pitching, catching and even hitting,” Felton said. “One of the seniors over the summer just worked on batting. And during the school year this year, she did the same thing during her [physical education] time. She went to the field and worked on batting. They let you know where her heart was in terms of the game. So I’m very proud of these seniors, although we didn’t finish with all five of them.”
