Indian Land Wins School’s 10th Softball Title, With 4-0 Win Over St. James In The Div. II AAAAA Softball Finals On May, 29

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Indian Land — Indian Land (31-3) and St. James (27-7) split their first two games in the best-of-three state softball finals, from the Div. II AAAAA ranks, so a third game was needed at neutral site, South Florence High on May 30, to break the deadlock.

Indian Land scored all their four runs in the 4^th inning, and pounded out 10 hits in the game, to earn a 4-0 win over St James, earning the school’s 10^th state softball title. The Warriors had won 9 state titles as a Class A member, with their last title coming in 2006. The program won seven straight titles between 2000 and 2006.

Indian Land has a rich softball tradition, and their current head coach, Monica Barfield, won three of those titles in 2004, ’05. ’06 before she took a break, after the 2008 season, to help raise her small children at the time. Coach Barfield returned to the program as the head coach in 2017, for what she calls “Round II.”

“I feel like this state championship means so much more,” said Coach Barfield. “The three previous titles, I feel like we were expected to win, but we had to work for this one. This is a very talented team, and I knew in the beginning of the season that we had a chance for a good run. Once we started beating great teams, and great coaches, the girls started to believe in themselves and that we could make a deep run in the playoffs.

“I also think coming out of the loser’s bracket against Woodmont and beating them twice really helped to build their confidence,” said Coach Barfield. “The bus trips to St. James, three times, and not getting to play on two of those days due to weather, also sparked my girls to finish the fight.”

Coach Barfield also praised the outstanding leadership of senior leaders Olivia Miller, the team’s veteran pitcher, and Logan Thomas, a talented catcher and she said these two players were key reasons Indian Land won the state championship.

“They are an excellent pitcher/catcher duo, and they compete well each other with great communication skills during a game,” said Coach Barfield. “Both of them are hard workers, lead by example, and just over-all very great girls and talented softball players. They will be missed at ILHS.”

Coach Barfield said Miller has signed up to play at South Carolina while Thomas is headed to USC Aiken to play softball. “Both USC, and USC-Aiken are getting great players in both of them,” said Coach Barfield.

In game one, Indian Land lost at home to St. James 5-3 on May 25. Bad weather delayed game two at Indian Land until May, 29 when St James, head coached by Paula Blackwell, took that game on the road 3-1, forcing a third game tie-breaker.

In the bottom of the 4^th, in game three, catcher Logan Thomas got Indian Land going on offense with a double. Pitcher Olivia Miller followed with a double to score Thomas, for the game’s first run. Right fielder Taylor Marvin then doubled scoring CR Jayla Herron to make it 2-0. Next, with no outs, first baseman Layla Crandall singled to center scoring Marvin to make it 3-0.

 The next two batters were out on a pop- ups in foul territory. Center fielder Avery Clark came up and smashed a double to left field scoring Crandall and the Warriors led for good at 4-0, with no additional runs being scored by either team.

Miller was the winning pitcher for Indian Land. She went a complete game seven innings allowing just three hits with seven strikeouts. At one point in the season Miller had a 9-4 record in the circle with an incredible 102 strikeouts in 42 innings of work with an ERA at 1.17. 

For the game Miller, Marvin and Crandall paced the Warrior’s offense with two hits and one RBI each. Clark and Thomas joined first baseman Harper Murphy, and second baseman Raegan Langborgh with one hit each.

St James was limited to three hits in the game. They were made by shortstop Kinzie Kraus, first baseman Payton Cox and DP Khloee Barton.

Raegan Tibbits was the losing pitcher for the Sharks. She pitched all six innings, allowed 10 hits, and had three strikeouts.

Indian Land finished 27-7 on the season while St James went 31-3 and 15-0 in their region.

 Miller was named to the softball coaches’ all-state team. Thomas, Clark, Murphy, and Crandall were named all region. 

Additional starters in the third game for Indian Land, not already mentioned, were shortstop Brooklyn Fairfax, and DP Alaura Mitchell.

Additional starters for St James were: third baseman Sophia Roloson, second baseman Callie Centraccio, and outfielders Grace Ray, Samantha Allen, Lauren Wallace, and Nevaeh Sacchetti.  

 The HSSR will release their annual all-state softball team around June,15 and both these teams are expected to have multiple honorees on that team following outstanding seasons by those teams.