McComb’s fastpitch softball team picked a bad time to run into one of the best pitching staffs in Class 5A.
Lake Cormorant’s Jessica Holliday and Adrianna Morgan, who entered the day with a 0.94 ERA and a 0.59 ERA, respectively, tossed 14 shutout innings Saturday to eliminate McComb in a 5A quarterfinal doubleheader at Sammy Clark Field in McComb.
McComb dropped a 4-0 decision in the first game, before falling 3-0 in the second game.
“The difference in the ball game was hitting,” McComb coach Cody Hall said. “We didn’t hit the ball today (Saturday) but they have great pitching and that’s definitely ... some of the best pitchers you’ll face this year.”
Holliday started both games before giving way to Morgan for the save. McComb was outhit 17-4 in the two games, recording only one hit in the first game and three in the second game.
McComb junior pitcher Kamry Creel pitched admirably despite picking up a pair of losses. She allowed 12 hits and four runs in the first game — two in the first inning and two in the fourth — but pitched around several jams to keep McComb in the game. In the second game, she found her groove with three runs — one earned — on five hits.
“That’s probably one of the best hitting teams in the state and (Creel) went toe to toe with them,” Hall said. “She kept us in the game and gave us a chance every single inning.”
Lake Cormorant scored unearned runs in both the first and fourth innings in Game 2, setting up McComb with an early 2-0 deficit. McComb finished with three errors. Lake Cormorant added its third run in the top of the seventh with a sacrifice fly.
“With a team that good, you can’t give them extra runs,” Hall said. “When you are fighting and struggling to score runs, you can’t get them extra outs. That’s a good team. It’s hard to come back from 3-0 on them.”
The Tigers had hits in the second, third and fourth innings but couldn’t do anything with the base runners. The best chance came in the third when Destini Brown, who had the only hit in Game 1, reached on a two-out single and stole second. Creel laced one up the middle but Lake Cormorant second baseman Alyssa Dean made a diving catch to end the threat.
“Our game plan was to shut them down as many times as we can and try to find that big hit,” Hall said. “We missed that key hit. We had some runners on ... but we just couldn’t get the big hit.”
McComb finishes the season 13-9 and captured its third district championship in a row. The biggest thing to take from Saturday’s losses was the Tigers’ youth. They graduate only one senior and return all nine starters — Brown, Creel, Breean Talbert, Leyton Terrell, Kaylin Coney, Katie Kalusche, Bethany Davis, Raneka Felder and Paige Brock.
“We had a very successful season ... A lot of people counted us out from the beginning this year because of how many we graduated last year,” Hall said. “ ... Definitely looking forward to next year and what we’ve accomplished this year. We expect big things out of them for years to come.”
