Last week, from May 14-18, the Southern Miss Softball Complex hosted the 2024 Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Softball State Championships in Hattiesburg. Fourteen teams represented various-size high schools (Class 1A – Class 7A) from around Mississippi, and the tournament pitted the state’s North Half Champions against its South Half Champions:
North Half Champs
1A – Pine Grove
2A – East Union
3A – Mantachie
4A – West Lauderdale 5A – Corinth 6A – South Panola 7A – Hernando
South Half Champs
1A – Stringer
2A – Pisgah
3A – St. Patrick Catholic
4A – Purvis
5A – East Central
6A – Hancock
7A – Northwest Rankin
With two wins required to take home the gold, it was a long week filled with some exciting softball.
Amazingly though, only one of the seven matchups (Class 1A) required a Game 3, with the other six contests settled in just two games.
In Class 1A, the Pine Grove Panthers defeated the Stringer Red Devils in three games, with Stringer taking the first win, 8-1. But the Pine Grove girls battled back for a 4-3 win in the second game, and they headed into extra innings in Game 3. Then, eighth-grader Anaston Christian scored the winning hit, earning MVP for the Class 1A State Championship.
It was the very first state softball title for Pine Grove High School, and Head Coach Justin Jordan said that means these girls will forever be a part of the school’s history: “As long as the school is around, then their names will be up on a wall somewhere. So, they will literally live forever in the school and in Tippah County.”
A different history was made by the East Union Urchins, as they won a back-to-back Class 2A state title by defeating the Pisgah Dragons in only two matchups. The Urchins took Game 1, 3-0, and they won the championship in Game 2 with an 11-3 win against the Dragons.
With two MSHAA Miss Softball awards under her belt, and now two state championship titles, Freshman Lucy Cochran also garnered her second MVP in a State Championship series.
“To go out and win back-to-back, it’s like I have to pinch myself,” Head Coach Josh Blythe proudly said of his Lady Urchins. “It’s so incredibly hard to do.”
Not far from East Union, another Northeast Mississippi team calmly worked their way into the winner’s circle for the first time in school history. The Mantachie Mustangs defeated the Fighting Irish of St. Patrick in two games, 13-0 and 7-5. In fact, the final game of the Class 3A series was only the third game of the season in which the Mustangs allowed five runs.
Driving in eight runs during the series, Mantachie MVP Allysa Gray credited her teammates and coaches, including Head Coach Kristi Montgomery, with her award.
“I wouldn’t have done it without any of these girls or coaches or anybody else or without the Lord,” said Gray. “It would have never been able to happen without everybody else.”
Meanwhile, Class 4A action included the West Lauderdale Knights against the Purvis Tornadoes. Game 1 of the series ended with the Knights, under Head Coach Jake Loper, taking down the Tornadoes 5-1. But Game 2 was much closer, with West Lauderdale securing a back-to-back championship with a score of 7-6.
Addison Cornish, MVP of the 4A series, got a huge hit in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game 6-6.
“I pretty much knew it was gone,” stated Cornish, “but I was crossing my fingers, hoping it would be gone.”
Then, in the bottom of the seventh, with the bases loaded, Cornish clinched the title for the Knights with a four-pitch walk that scored the winning run.
Likewise, it took only two games to declare the state champions of Class 5A, with the Warriors of Corinth facing off against the Hornets of East Central.
Corinth took Game 1, 5-1. But after a three-hour rain delay in Game 2, Corinth finally got their very first state championship in the program’s history by pushing past a tie in the top of the third inning to win 7-3.
Sophomore catcher Addyson Moore garnered the Class 5A MVP spot, going 6 for 7 in the series, with three home runs and six RBIs.
Corinth coach Maggi Vondenstein said her players were there to win, regardless of the rain: “We didn’t care how long we were gonna have to wait. They wanted to get it done today and, my gosh, they did.”
Also getting it done, South Panola’s Sadie Bright, Miss Softball for Class 6A and series MVP, pitched the last inning of Game 2 of the championship against the Hancock Hawks.
With a 2-1 win in Game 1, the senior pitcher struck out the last three Hawk batters to defeat Hancock 1-0, and it was an especially sweet win since the South Panola Tigers came up short in last year’s championship tournament.
“We talked about how that felt all year long,” said South Panola Coach Ashleigh Hicks. “We used it for motivation.”
Head Coach Mike Armstrong motivated his Class 7A Northwest Rankin Cougars to complete a perfect season of 34 wins and no losses. The Cougars defeated the Hernando Tigers in two games for the state’s very first MHSAA Class 7A softball title in Mississippi’s history, winning 5-4 in Game 1 and 6-3 in Game 2.
Neither game of the 7A series was a walk in the park though, with rain delays and runs nullified in the second game and a come-from-behind win in the first.
“We haven’t been behind much,” said Armstrong, “and we usually get ahead early and keep adding to it; they didn’t quit.”
The 2024 win was basically a repeat championship for Northwest Rankin since they also took home the Class 6A trophy last year as well. Plus, senior Jolie Hays took home Miss Softball honors again this year in the brand new 7A division.
Regardless of the scores, these 14 teams put forth stellar efforts and showed great sportsmanship.
So, congratulations, girls! Every softball fan in the state of Mississippi is proud of you.
