Getting hot at the right time

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From a numbers perspective, Vestavia Hills may not have belonged.

The Class 7A state softball tournament included three teams with more than 40 wins on the season. Several others had more than 30. Vestavia had 25 entering the tournament, with a record that flirted around the .500 mark for much of the year.

The problem is, the numbers don’t accurately describe the 2016 edition of the Lady Rebels, who fought and earned everything they got, en route to a third-place finish at the state tournament, behind Sparkman and Spain Park, the two teams that beat Vestavia in the tournament.

The first day of the state tournament was perfect, as the Lady Rebels notched a pair of wins and knocked defending champion Baker and No. 1 James Clemens to the loser’s bracket in back-to-back games.

“That’s huge, especially for a young team who is inexperienced at the state tournament,” head coach Lissa Walker said.

Things went the opposite direction on Day 2, as the Lady Rebels lost both contests, but that did nothing to diminish the feeling of their coach. Walker came away impressed by what she saw from her team.

Despite its overall record, the team got hot at the right time. A win over Spain Park on Senior Night did wonders for the team’s confidence, as RaeAnn King’s two-run blast to left field was the difference.

A dramatic, back-and-forth, 12-11 win over Hewitt-Trussville in the Area 6 Tournament qualified them for the North Central Regional, as Mary Sanders James scored on a ground ball to deliver the winning run.

At regionals, the Lady Rebels endured a challenge, but pulled through. After starting over two hours later than scheduled, they defeated Oak Mountain before beginning a game against Spain Park about 10:45 p.m. and had to stop the game a few minutes after midnight.

They were then forced to drive home from Tuscaloosa, then turn around and be back for the rest of the game at 9 a.m. Despite being sleep-deprived, Vestavia came out swinging the bats, erasing a 2-0 deficit with four runs in the fifth inning of the game, the first inning that day.

Spain Park would come back to win the game, but the Lady Rebels rebounded with a shutout win over Oak Mountain to seal its spot at state.

So how were they able to put it all together toward the end?

“Because they fight,” Walker said.

That tough spirit made the team’s record for the majority of the season irrelevant.

“It’s how you develop. It’s how you keep going and then how the end plays out. With this group, you couldn’t focus on the record because the record meant nothing to us,” she said.

Ask any player on the team, and the unit’s biggest strength was the team’s chemistry.

“It says a lot about the girls,” Walker said. “Our girls came together as a team this year. When you go through what we’ve been through, kind of up and down through the whole season, turn it around at the right time, it says a lot about your girls and their character.”

Taylor Coe and Jordan Reising are the only two seniors departing, leaving a strong core for the next edition of the Lady Rebels. But neither will be easy to replace.

“Definitely going to miss the combination of what they brought to the team,” Walker said.

Jessica Perley and Kate Nash combined to give Vestavia a strong season in the pitching circle. Perley finished with a 15-10 record with a 2.14 ERA. Nash started 20 games and picked up eight wins.

Coe led the team with a .425 on base percentage. Ashley Dieguez paced the Lady Rebels with her .341 average, followed by James’ .324 mark. Merritt Cahoon and Audrey Meloun each hit .322. The power was supplied mainly from King and Perley, who finished with six and four homers, respectively.

It has been said that a team has to get there and lose before it can win. Hopefully the Lady Rebels can turn lessons learned from the state tournament into a trophy next year.

“They had a taste of what this is like, and they had a taste of why we work the way we work and why we do what we do,” Walker said.