BY JAKE GONZALEZ
FOR THE OBSERVER
BEULAH —
The cool spring air has fled as the drenching summer heat has come into replace it. With the arrival of the heat, spring sports have begun to finish and some came to an end before teams were ready.
Beulah High’s softball season came to a close in heartbreaking fashion in a 2-0 loss to Mobile Christian in the semi-finals of the AHSAA 3A State Softball Tournament that took place in Oxford, Alabama.
“No, we wanted more,” said longtime Beulah head coach Stan Pepper with a heavy sigh. “It is what it is. You’re either gonna win the state championship or not but we finished one game shy of the championship.”
The Bobcats dropped their first game of the state tournament to the eventual champions, Houston Academy out of Dothan, Ala.. The rest of the tournament the Bobcats battled it out in the losers bracket winning three games in two days before taking on Mobile Christian in the semi-final game.
“Thet just battled through a lot of adversity,” Pepper said. “We aren’t disappointed in the season. We are a week out, so it still stings right now.”
Beulah had one of their best seasons in their history. Not only in terms of where they finished in post season play but also in terms of wins and winning percentage; The Bobcats finished the season with a record of 45-8 and a win percentage of 0.85.
Beulah’s trio of seniors — Shelby Owsley, Kassidy Kirby and Kate Morris — have been the heart of the program as they made it to the state semi-finals.
“They’ll never be forgotten,” Pepper said. “All the wins they had. The trophies. The success they had for the program was second to none. They’ve set the bar extremely high for other groups to come through.”
With all of the success this season, Pepper is hopeful for what the future holds for this program. There is a ton of experience on the roster with four rising seniors incluing Brandy Phillips, who lead the team in batting average, on-base percentage and had a team low earned run average of 0.75.
“They were a special group,” Pepper said with pride. “Hopefully, we have some special groups coming up in the future to be able to at least reach that bar. If not, surpass it.”