By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
FAIR GROVE — There isn’t a single player on the team who is old enough to remember the last time Skyline won a district softball championship. None of them had even been born.
But the feeling of being a runner-up was one the Tigers knew all too well.
They had reached the district title game in four of the past five seasons — including the past two — only to come up just short each time. Then COVID-19 happened and 2020 was lost.
But with one swing of her bat on Thursday afternoon, Keelie Holmes erased all those years of near-misses and heartbreak by finally delivering a title the school had waited 19 long years to win — and one that she and her teammates will remember for the rest of their lives.
The senior hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh, sending the Tigers to a dramatic 9-8 victory over Strafford in the District 2 Class 7 championship game in an instant classic at Fair Grove High School. It was the first district title since 2002 for Skyline, which will host District 8 champion Warsaw at 5 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the state tournament.
“These seniors and juniors, they’ve wanted it for so long,” Skyline coach Shawna Bybee said. “They’ve gotten let down in the district championship game for the last two years. We didn’t get to play last year. So it’s emotional and there are a lot of happy tears, because it’s such a deserving group this year. It really is.”
Ranked No. 2 in the state among Class 2 schools, the Tigers (21-1) have been a buzz saw for virtually the entire season. They had outscored opponents 243-36 over their first 21 games, amassing nine shutouts and scoring double-digit runs in 17 of those outings en route to the first Mid-Lakes Conference championship in school history.
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Those staggering totals become even more impressive when you consider that Mizzou commit Lilly Whitten, one of the region’s top talents, had missed the past month with mononucleosis before she was finally cleared to play prior to the district semifinals.
With Whitten still easing her way back into game shape, Bybee tabbed Jorden Hodges — who has been the team’s only pitcher in Whitten’s absence — for the start and planned to bring Whitten in to close things out as she did in Wednesday’s victory over Buffalo.
But those plans went awry after Strafford’s Lauren Jones hit a leadoff home run and Evelyn Comstock added a two-run shot as the Indians went up 3-0 after just seven pitches. Whitten came on and allowed an RBI single to Addy Crocker as Strafford led 4-0 midway through one.
“I told the girls on the bus I thought they weren’t going to start Lilly,” Strafford coach Dale Bean said. “I said ‘When they don’t start Lilly, they’re giving you an inch. And if they’re going to give you an inch, you have to take a mile.’ And those girls went out there and they took a mile from that girl as fast as you can take one. I couldn’t have been any more proud.”
Though it was immediately clear this game wasn’t going to be anything like Skyline’s 11-0 win over Strafford last month, the Tigers weren’t phased by the early deficit.
Skyline’s high-powered offense came back immediately with two runs in its half of the first, as Grace Edge drove in a run and later scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 4-2.
“Strafford came out with a ton of grit,” Bybee said. “I just told the girls one inning. That’s what we’ve always done, go by one inning and try to beat the other team. If they score four, we need to respond in some sort of way and we did. We only scored two, but we did respond.”
But the Indians came back in the top of the second with two more runs against Whitten, as starting pitcher Emma Mullings walked, stole second and scored on Comstock’s RBI single. Mya Highfill followed that up with an RBI single and restored Strafford’s four-run advantage.
The message was very similar to what the Tigers heard after the first inning.
“I just said we’ve got to find grit,” Bybee said. “We haven’t been as lucky as to come from behind a lot of times this season and I just told the girls there’s no pressure, you’ve just got to play our game. We’ve got to go back to playing softball.”
From that point, it was all Skyline.
Angelina Curtis and Ella Dougherty hit RBI singles in the second to make it 6-4 and Whitten settled into a rhythm, retiring 12 of the next 14 batters she faced through the top of the sixth.
“I just knew I had to hold my ground and just do it for the girls,” Whitten said. “Me and the girls and the seniors have been through a lot together, so I just had to do it for them.”
Mullings was equally as effective through the third and fourth, holding the Tigers off the scoreboard. She didn’t pitch in the first meeting between the teams — Bean didn’t want to give the Tigers a chance to see his ace before this game — but Skyline got more comfortable with her as the game progressed and broke through on its third time through the order.
Chayla Tuning and Alexa Curtis had RBI hits to tie it with two outs in the fifth, then Edge put the Tigers ahead 8-6 with a towering two-run home run in the sixth inning.
That looked to be a dagger, but the Indians rallied to tie it in their final turn at the plate.
Emma Ivey grounded into a fielder’s choice that allowed Mullings to score, then Natalie Gannon made it 8-8 with a two-out RBI single that brought Comstock home.
But Strafford couldn’t take the lead and Skyline came out swinging in the seventh.
The Tigers saw three pitches and hit singles on all of them, as Tuning led off, Curtis moved her to second and Holmes brought her home to send the Tigers pouring out of the dugout.
That kind of situation is what the Tigers have spent hours practicing for, Holmes said.
“I don’t think any other team in the state is putting in the hours that we put in every week.” Holmes said. “It’s insane. We want this a whole lot more than anybody else right now.”
Strafford ended the season 12-14, an impressive record for a team that started five freshmen and three sophomores and came within a run of knocking off Skyline for the district title.
And things look bright for next year and beyond, as freshmen combined to drive in six of Strafford’s eight runs. But that wasn’t enough to stop Skyline on Thursday.
As the Tigers head to the state tournament, the question now becomes if anyone can.
“The thing you have to do with (Skyline) is you have to keep them close as long as you can until you get to the very end and hopefully you can surprise them and get a couple runs,” Bean said. “We almost did. We were a couple hits away. I can’t ask for much more of our girls. They played their butts off tonight and I’m super proud of them.”
EXTENDED HIGHLIGHTS
