Northside, Columbus, Harris County ready for state softball tournament
Last season, the Northside softball team came excruciatingly close to winning a region championship and earning a top seed in the Class AAAAA tournament.
Instead, the Lady Patriots fell one run short. They would follow suit in the playoffs, losing by one run in back-to-back games to Evans in the first run for a quick exit.
This year, they were determined not to let that happen.
"The girls were fired up about it," coach Brandon Jenkins said. "They remember what it felt like, and they were determined not to be there again. They refused to lose."
It all started in the offseason, when Jenkins could sense an extra motivation from his team to improve and turn some of its weaknesses into strengths. The pitching got better, they squared more balls up at the plate and didn't make as many mistakes in the field.
Jenkins thinks part of that has to do with the experience earned in some of those big games a year ago.
"We played in a lot of big games," he said. "We couldn't say that last year. At the end of the season, we felt mentally and physically exhausted. That's not the case this year."
This year, Northside (22-9, 10-2) will host Starr's Mill in the opening round at 4 p.m. Wednesday. It will be a best-of-three series with Game 2 scheduled immediately after the completion of the opener. If necessary, Game 3 will be Thursday.
The Lady Panthers (15-11, 7-5) don't have a stellar record, but play in a region that Jenkins called the best in all of Class AAAAA.
"We know they play tough competition all year," he said. "A lot of those teams come to the elite eight, and we know how tough it's going to be to beat them."
He's keeping his team focused on itself rather than its opponent, though.
"A the end of the day, we have to play our game," he said. "We can only control what we can control. We have to work ahead in counts, get the first out, square balls up and play defense. We've been doing that, so hopefully we can continue. One thing I learned from Bobby Howard -- we just have to win now. It doesn't matter how."
Two other area teams will get their playoffs started on Wednesday, as well. Harris County (17-12, 10-2), a No. 2 seed, will host Ola (19-8, 13-2), and Columbus (18-14, 10-2), a No. 3 seed, will travel to Union Grove (20-7, 11-3).
The three teams were neck and neck throughout the regular season, sharing 10-2 region records and each beating the other. The region tournament seeding came down to a tiebreaker, and Northside and Harris County ended up facing each other in the region championship, with Northside taking home the crown.
Both Harris County and Columbus advanced to the Class AAAAA elite eight tournament last season. Northside is trying to make the final tournament for the first time since 2009, when it lost to Columbus in the state championship.
David Mitchell, Follow David on Twitter@leprepsports.
This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Northside, Columbus, Harris County ready for state softball tournament ."