The town of Turbeville will have to expand the sign that greets visitors coming in on U.S. 378 from Sumter County.
Already adorned with several state championship wins from East Clarendon High School, a new one will have to be added after the Lady Wolverines won the Class A State Championship in softball May 17, four years to the day that the team won the same title in 2013.
“It’s indescribable,” said senior Mikayla Anderson, 18, the team’s first-base player. Anderson was on the team that won the same title in 2013 when she was in eighth grade.
“Back in eighth grade, I didn’t know how much it meant. But over the years, going through all these practices and all the work and all the heat, now I know exactly how much it means to all of us.”
Anderson has been part of the team that has made Lower State every year since then.
“We’ve always been close since 2013, but we’ve never been able to get the state title again,” she said. “Sure, it’s disappointing, but winning this year has made all the hard work worth it.”
Anderson and her co-captain, Bailey Evans, also a senior, continually called the win “unreal.”
“My sister, Jordan Evans, won it in 2013 when she was a junior,” said Evans. “She was the catcher. I play right field.”
Evans was then in eight-grade, but not on the varsity team.
“When she won it, it was so big for the team and the town, and I was so excited,” Evans said. “We were hoping we would win it last year, but we came up short. That’s why we fought so hard this year. We got it.”
The team’s path to the ultimate goal wasn’t an easy one, Evans said. She noted that the Lady Wolverines have been known as an “underdog team” and a team that takes a little while to get warmed up.
“We always start slow,” she said. “We’re normally a fourth-inning team. We start scoring by the fourth inning, and I know we’re all right.”
In the final game against Dixie High School on May 17, Evans grew a little concerned when she and her teammates had failed to get on the scoreboard by the end of the fourth inning.
“We didn’t score by then, and I was like, ‘Y’all, we’ve got to get it together,’” Evans said. “The few errors we made in the first three innings, it was all nerves. I think because we were also at home, it was even more nerve-racking.”
Just like the final game, the season began slow as well, Evans noted.
“We didn’t have all our girls for a while due to basketball,” she said. “But we made some changes and grew as a team throughout the season, all the way up through Wednesday night. We just knew we had to push through.”
In the final game, Anderson got on base at the bottom of the sixth inning, and Evans scored the first run.
“Going into the last inning, our last at-bat in the bottom of the seventh, Abby got on first, and then Mikayla popped up,” Evans said. “Marley struck out. I had to hit the ball. I had two strikes. I knew I could do it.”
Evans hit the ball down the center, and the second base player for Dixie overthrew the ball to first, allowing Evans to make it safely to the base.
“I almost couldn’t believe it,” Evans said. Elly Floyd got Evans to second, and the score was tied 3-3. Caitlin Timmons then hit the ball that allowed Evans to make the winning run.
“Big Andy (Baker) is our base coach, and he ran all the way home with me,” said Evans. “Gracen Watts was up to bat, and I was jumping on the plate and she was jumping with me. Then everyone came running.”
Floyd, a sophomore and centerfielder, said the win “felt so good.”
“It was a lot of pressure to be up to bat in that last inning,” she said. “We already had two outs. It was an amazing run when we started having girls get on base and then we tied the game. I felt like God put me in that situation for a reason.”
Floyd said at the moment she was up to bat, she felt the whole town of Turbeville behind her.
“I saw the whole town of Turbeville and felt like they were cheering and smiling just for me,” she said. “I had a smile on my face, and I knew that I would do whatever it took to pull through for my team.”
Since her seventh-grade year, Floyd had heard Anderson and Watts talk about how great it was to win state in 2013.
“Now, to know what it’s like to be the state champion, it’s honestly the best thing ever,” she said.
Floyd said the key to this winning season was every player having the same “mentality.”
“We had the idea that, pretty much, whether we win or lose, we always have each others’ backs,” said Floyd. “We were not afraid to go out there and lose. We played like it was our last ball game in every game.”
Timmons, a junior, plays left field. She wasn’t on the 2013 state team, but like Floyd, had always heard about the win.
“It was like a dream come true,” she said. “Finally, we were there. But we really put forward the effort at practice. We practiced batting, hitting, fielding and getting everything to perfection.”
There was an immense pressure, she said, in that final game.
“We had to fight after it,” she said. “At the end of the day, it was just down to which team wanted it more. We wanted it more.”
Junior Olivia Singletary plays second base on the team. She said the last game was “crazy.”
“I felt like this whole time we were working and practicing, that this was our year,” she said. “We all had that feeling, I think. Afterward, I just broke down and cried and cried and cried. It was a feeling like I’ve never felt before.”
Singletary said the first game of the State Championship series was almost as nerve-racking as the second and final game.
“When we went to Dixie, it was the fifth inning before either of us had a run on the board,” she said. “Everyone has always said we’re a come-back-from-behind team. I knew from the fourth inning that something was about to happen. Whenever they scored first, I didn’t get down. I had a little bit of worry, but not doubt. It was stressful. We were screaming in the dugout. (Watts), (Evans) and I were praying for God to just please let us have the strength to pull through this game.”
Junior Marley Floyd was the pitcher for the state games.
“I was nervous at first, but then I have an amazing defense behind me,” she said. “I just knew I had to hit my spots and the defense would do the rest.”
She said that, at the end of the day, the win was all for the glory of God.
“It was exciting, because we worked so hard this year,” she said. “But it was all due and for God. Without him, we couldn’t do it.”
Catcher Abby Reardon, a junior at East Clarendon High School, said the win was “unbelievable.”
“It seriously hasn’t even set in, honestly,” she said. “I’ve re-watched the last inning maybe four times. It still hasn’t set in.”
Reardon was one of the ones to bat in the last inning of the second and final game.
“Before I went up to bat, I was lead-off batter, and Bailee just told me all she needed me to do was hit it over Delaney’s (the Dixie pitcher) head,” Reardon said. “That’s what happened. I didn’t think I was going to get on, because it was a blooper, but I got there. Everything fell into place.”
Watts, the team’s shortstop, said she still feels like she’s on “cloud nine.”
“I think we came into that final game really confident and believing in each other; we didn’t give up,” she said. “Whenever Dixie got three runs, we didn’t panic.”
Instead, Watts thinks that Dixie panicked a little in the final inning when the tide turned toward the Lady Wolverines.
“We were really loud, too,” she said. “That second baseman that overthrew the ball, she knew what was at stake. I think she panicked a little. That’s a big moment. And it’s hard to play under that kind of pressure, especially as defending champions.”
Ninth-grader Zoe McElveen, an outfielder and backup catcher who ran the bases in the final game for Reardon, agreed with Watts on Dixie’s demeanor toward the end of that game.
“They got overconfident,” she said. “Even their fans, I feel like, kind of let down their guard. They thought they had it, and they didn’t. It wasn’t over til it was over. And that’s the thing that we believed in as a team. This was a one-of-a-kind experience.”
Sophomore Britni Anderson - Mikayla’s younger sister - said winning state with her sister was “10 times better than winning it by myself.”
“I had faith that we were going to pull through,” she said. “Once we got that overthrow in the final inning, I knew it was over. I knew we got it. But I was really nervous. I think they let up a little bit, thinking they had it all in the bag. That’s when we put it in four-wheel drive and went on with it.”
Junior Shannon Scott said the most challenging part of the season was “keeping everybody positive.”
“You have to get yourself and everyone else hyped up and get their hopes up,” she said. “Those final games were intense and nerve-racking. But I thought we could do it the whole season. And we did. It’s a really new experience, but being state champions looks good on us.”
Elly Floyd said that it’s obvious to her that the expectations for 2018 will be another run at state.
“I think everyone will expect us to come out and win again, because we finally know what it feels like,” she said.
The team will only lose Anderson and Floyd, and has six incoming seniors.
“We’re going to be missing a great first baseman and great right-fielder,” Floyd said. “But I think if we keep the same mentality that we had this year, we can pull through next year, too.”
Timmons agreed.
“The town will have high expectations for us, but so do I,” she said. “We’re only losing two seniors, and we’ll pretty much have the same team with the same mentality.”
Singleton said the team will retain its pitcher and most of the same defense. Like Timmons, she has high expectations for herself and her teammates.
“We are setting our expectations high; Dixie was our big rival through the playoffs, and now that we’ve beaten them the first two games, and that had never happened, we know that we can do that again,” she said. “We just have to prepare like we did this year.”
Anderson has no doubt that the team can do it without her and Evans, though she will be there in spirit, she said.
“I think they stand a very good chance next year, now that they have a taste of what it feels like,” she said. “Nothing is going to stop them next year.”
Sophomore Kinsley Driggers, who plays third base, is already geared up for a rematch against Dixie next year.
“I’m ready to play those girls again with these girls on my team,” she said. “We’re only losing two, which is heartbreaking. But I think with the ones we have, we could go to practice and win a second and even a third state championship.”
