One last shot for Lady Tide
Published 7:01 am Wednesday, April 23, 2014
STILL ALIVE: Picayune’s Megan Dudenheffer and her Lady Tide teammates host Stone County in Region 7-5A action tonight as the Lady Tide attempts to earn a spot in the upcoming Class 5A South State playoffs.
Photo by John Young
GULFPORT — This season hasn’t been as successful as most in the past have been for the Picayune fast-pitch softball team.
Still, with the regular season coming to an end today, the Lady Tide still can accomplish a goal.
Picayune hosts Stone County in what should be a showdown for the third and final playoff spot in Region 7-5A The Lady Tide sits 0-5 in league play coming into the game, and the Lady Tomcats were 1-3 going into Tuesday night’s region game against West Harrison.
Head coach Kristi Mitchell’s Picayune team fell to Stone 16-8 two weeks ago, so for Picayune to make the playoffs, the Lady Tide has to win tonight by at least eight runs.
“I’m glad that we still have an opportunity to still make the state playoffs,” the veteran mentor Mitchell said. “I really thought we would be more successful this season, but we haven’t played as well as we could have at times. We can only go out and hope things fall into place for us (tonight).”
Picayune remained win-less in league play and dropped to 5-18-1 overall with a 10-0 loss to homestanding West HarrisonMonday night.
The Lady Hurricanes jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first frame and never looked back in taking the win. West Harrison has already secured second place in the league standings, right behind region champ Long Beach.
“We just dug ourselves into a bit of a hole early and we couldn’t hit well enough to dig ourselves out of it” Mitchell said. “We can’t afford to do that against Stone. We will have to play well from the beginning of the game in order to do what we need to do to make the playoffs.”
Marissa McDonald had a triple in the loss for Picayune. Megan Dudenheffer took the loss on the hill.
The state playoffs for all classes in softball begin on Thursday. The third seed in Region 7-5A, either Picayune or Stone, will face Wayne County in the opening round Class 5A South State best-of-three series.
Wayne County finished second in Region 5-5A. The series may be pushed back to start on Friday. Picayune has just four seniors on its roster this season.
