Sophomore all-stater Ava Parks’ two-out RBI double in the bottom of the fifth inning broke a 3-3 tie, driving in what proved to be the decisive run as the Patriots tamed the Tigers of Shady Spring in the sectional championship game for the third consecutive season, toppling them 4-3 in the Class AAA Region 3 Section 1 title tilt Thursday in Coal City.
The win sets up a best-of-3 regional series against Hebert Hoover next week with the winner advancing to the state tournament.
Parks’ performance was just the latest impressive feat for the sophomore backstop who registered her 32nd game and 122nd plate appearance of the season without a single strikeout.
Boasting a .357 batting average against the Tigers in four games coming into Thursday’s tilt, the visitors elected to bypass issuing a free pass to one of the state’s best hitters and Parks took advantage.
“People just don’t do that much,” Independence head coach Ken Adkins said. “I don’t know if it’s a pride thing. I’ve walked them a couple times and I probably should’ve today. I had some spots but you hate to walk both (Jenna Joyce and Peyton Raban) and load the bases with nobody out.
“I had a rough game against them (Monday) so I figured (Shady Spring pitcher Jenna Joyce) would come at me just like she did then,” Parks admitted.
Avoiding Parks and taking a chance with Emma Lilly, who finished the five-game season series against Shady with a .529 batting average, crossed the minds of the Tiger braintrust.
“Yeah, maybe,” Shady head coach Nikki Mays said when asked about potentially walking Parks in that spot. “We’ve got to learn to make the plays and we’ve got to learn to be locked in. We’ve been fighting that all year. They’re making hard plays and we’re not even making easy plays.”
After playing a relatively clean game in Monday’s matchup, errors and miscues proved to be fatal. And they always came in high-leverage spots.
The most glaring came in the bottom of the third after the Tigers took a 3-1 lead.
Parks kicked off a two-out rally with a single and scored when Lilly followed up with an RBI single, taking second on the throw home. An aggressive Lilly bolted for third, baiting the throw but nobody ran to the base to corral it and it bounced into left field, leaving Lilly free to run home.
That led to Mays calling an immediate huddle in the circle.
The damage was done though and it stung even more with Joyce recovering to strike out the batter at the plate for the third out.
“We pretty much just gave it to them,” Mays said.
It didn’t help that Independence took a 1-0 lead on an error in the first inning and nearly allowed another to cross before Joyce induced a pair of pop outs to escape the jam.
The Tigers answered back in the third when Raegan Lane drew a leadoff walk, scoring when Lacey Osborne doubled. Raban’s two-run homer followed but capped the scoring for the visitors. In fact they only had two more runners reach base the rest of the night, unable to make solid contact as Independence pitch Kenzie Pierce jammed them.
The highlight came in the sixth inning where she threw just three pitches, all resulting in pop outs on the infield.
“I wrote a little note – and I’ve done this before – ‘Pound them in and don’t let up,'” Adkins said. “I wrote it four times and I kept telling Savannah Stanley, who was helping me keep the pitching chart, I said, ‘Every time I call something else you remind me pound them in and don’t let up.’ Today that worked. Before either they missed or they adjusted and today they did not adjust as well. That’s why they had those rips down the left field line. They’re either going to hit it foul or just barely get it. But we were very fortunate but Raban still hit one.”
The regional series with Hebert Hoover brings the Patriots to a familiar spot. They’ve struggled against the Huskies over the last decade, usually in the state tournament. In 2019 they lost a nine-inning matchup in the state tournament in Vienna and saw their season come to an end again at the hands of the Huskies in the 2021 and 2023 state tournaments.
Sharing a region this year for the first time, the two programs will meet a stop sooner. Hoover swept the regular season matchup, blanking Indy 4-0 on April 9 in Elkview and 8-0 on April 18 in Coal City.
“We did learn some things,” Adkins said. “The one thing we learned is they’re not overwhelming. In the past, they had some pitchers that just overwhelmed you and they could throw two or three of them at you. They’re really good in all facets of the game. It’s Missy (Smith), it’s Hoover. You can argue it all you want, they’re the best softball program in the state of West Virginia. Every year you could argue that. You wanna be there, you’ve got to beat them. We want it. I didn’t want to beat Greenbrier East, we wanted Shady. Next year we won’t have Hoover in our region but if you get there, that’s who you want to beat. That’s the whole goal.
“It’s a most a relief to get through this because now our kids can go play free. Now you’re playing with house money. You’re not supposed to beat Hoover. Anybody puts that on paper, they’re supposed to win. But I think we can.”
Parks led all batters with two hits while Raban led all with two RBI. Joyce took the loss despite allowing juts two earned runs while Pierce faced six in victory.
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Class AAA Region 3 Section 1 all-tournament team
Hayden Jones (Princeton)
Zoey Agnew (Princeton)
Emma Compton (PikeView)
Shelby Maddox (PikeView)
Ally Martin (Greenbrier East)
Reagan Cline (Greenbrier East)
Jenna Joyce (Shady)
Peyton Raban (Shady)
Raegan Lane (Shady)
Emma Lilly (Indy)
Kassidy Bradbury (Indy)
Emma Simpson (Indy)
Ava Parks (MVP) (Indy)
