Coast team strikes gold in playoffs after rough softball season. The key? Middle schoolers
George County isn’t supposed to be here.
The Rebels finished fifth in their own district with a 2-4 record and entered the softball playoffs as an afterthought. And yet, they find themselves preparing for the South State Championship series against a vaunted East Central team.
Three rounds, six wins, zero losses. George County has caught fire at precisely the right time. All it took to light the flame was a spark from an unlikely source.
“I had to make some hard decisions,” head coach Kasey McCann told the Sun Herald. “I moved up seven middle schoolers and they got subbed in a few times here and there to pinch hit or whatever. They worked their way into the starting lineup and they’ve stayed. They’ve made a statement.”
The Rebels were swept by both Pearl River Central and Vancleave in the regular season, but they turned around and swept both when it mattered most in the second and third rounds of the playoffs. And for good measure, George County outscored them by a total of 25 runs in four games.
Players like eighth grader Ary Dixon and seventh grader Kyleigh Howell, who hit a two-run home run in her very first varsity at-bat, have breathed life into the Rebel lineup.
With their insertions, McCann now has eight players with at least 20 at-bats who are hauling a batting average north of .300.
“I guess you could say we had a few holes in the lineup,” McCann said. “When we moved the younger players up, they were ready to go. They may be in seventh or eighth grade but they aren’t playing like it.”
On paper, to those on the outside, this has all the makings of a classic underdog story. Even one of McCann’s assistants suggested as much: “We’re not supposed to be here.”
But the team has approached the final run a bit differently. The middle school girls were not around when Pearl River Central dispatched the Rebels by eight runs and they were not yet established on varsity when East Central run-ruled George County 13-3 in March.
Seeing their district rivals for the first time late in the season and in the playoffs, the younger players went in with a more dangerous attitude: without fear.
“I really don’t think (the team) feels like their the underdog,” McCann said. “They feel like they can beat anybody on any given day.”
It’s not just the imports that have played well down their stretch. Sophomore Gracie Magee has recorded at least one RBI in every game of the playoffs and is on an eight-game RBI streak.
Since the playoffs started, Magee has driven in 17 runs on 14 hits and three home runs.
“I can’t say enough about her, she’s been outstanding,” McCann said. “Her stats speak for themselves. She’s been a great ball player all around.”
She’s also started three playoff games in the circle, most recently holding Vancleave to one run in seven innings in the South State semifinals.
Magee is surrounded by other experienced hitters in Irina Sanford, Ashton Fairley, Natalie Jones and Gabby Deluca, a quartet that has combined for 142 hits this year.
Thrown together with the middle schoolers, George County’s lineup is as strong as anybody’s. The real secret to the turnaround, though, is that they know that now.
“They don’t care who they’re playing,” McCann said. “The others who have played see East Central as the rivals down the road. That’s how it seemed like it was, but it’s not like that now. Now it’s like, so what? It’s East Central... they’re ready to take care of business.”
