Darlington High softball wins state championship

By Chad Rhoad
Editor/ The Messenger
Published: May 15, 2008

GREENVILLE – The Darlington varsity softball team traveled to Greenville Wednesday night for game two of the Class AAA state championship series. They led one games to none.

After ten innings of play, a new champion was crowned.

The Darlington Lady Falcons brought home the first state championship in any sport in school history.

The game was a pitching rematch between Darlington’s Stacy Weatherford and J.L. Mann’s Leslie Jury. And both pitchers were at the top of their game, according to Darlington head coach Tim Wiley. “[Jury] is probably the best pitcher we have seen all year. The best in the state, hands down.”

International rules took over in the ninth and tenth innings, which states that a runner be placed on second base at the beginning of each teams at bat for every inning after the eighth, Wiley said.

Wiley also said the Lady Falcons did not hit the ball well in the game. However, he said they saw that J.L. Mann did not field bunts well, so they began to bunt in the tenth inning to move the runner around.

They scored on one of those bunts, Wiley said, and then Brooke Spinks managed a deep sacrifice fly that added one more run to make the score 3-1 in the top of the tenth.

A scoreless bottom half of the inning gave Darlington its first state championship in school history.

“It was very little offense, and a lot of pitching,” Wiley said. “It feels good, but I’m happy for the kids. They have been after it for a while now. I’m just happy that the seniors can leave with one [championship] under their belt.”

Wiley said he hopes the championship means a lot to the school. “We talked to the girls a lot about that,” he said. “When you are playing, you are playing for the high school and playing for the town. The school has given us anything we’ve asked them for. They have been behind us the whole time.”

The coach said the championship has probably not sunken in fully with the girls yet. “I think when they get up today [Thursday], they will start to think about it. As the day goes on, they will realize they one the school’s first championship.”

This season is Wiley’s first as head coach at Darlington, but he has coached the girls in their travel softball teams and feels very close to them. He said he felt for the teams of the past two seasons who came so close but couldn’t quite get the championship. “We all did it together,” he said. “It was a team effort. [The girls] Jimmy Norwood, Randy Bryant and Tom Weatherford. We all had the same goals.”

Seniors Courtney Kickery, Stacy Weatherford, Elizabeth Flowers and Taylor Wiley will certainly enjoy their victory as they end their high school careers with a championship.

“[The team] never let down,” Wiley said of the effort. “It wasn’t like we got to do everything in Darlington. We had to go on the road a lot. They won their hardest games on the road. When you can do that on the road, you have got something special. I am very proud of the team. I told them to hold on to that [championship] now. You’ve got one in your hand.”