RIDGE SPRING-MONETTA 21, GREAT FALLS 3 (5 innings)
MONETTA -- Ridge Spring-Monetta softball coach Joey Middlebrooks and his assistants talked with their players all week about this.
They spoke at length Monday after a good practice, then did the same Tuesday after a bad one. They discussed the things they needed to make sure they were doing in order to become a better team.
They heard the chatter within the school, but of course they were already well aware of what was at stake Wednesday - one win over Great Falls would bring the Trojans their first district championship in program history.
RS-M had already beaten Great Falls 10-0 Saturday to follow up a 15-0 win over North, meaning the Trojans had a bit of a safety net in that the Red Devils would have to beat them twice to advance.
Even with that type of advantage, the Trojans didn’t take the situation lightly. In fact, they did the exact opposite. RS-M battered Great Falls for a nine-run first inning on the way to a 21-3 win in five innings, sending the Trojans to their first Upper State tournament.
“For us to put a nine-spot - 17 hits on the night, probably our most hits in a game this year. Definitely one of our higher-scoring games,” Middlebrooks said. “We tried hard to step off and not disrespect teams, but tonight we were going to go. Man, 17 hits. That’s huge. We still had three errors, so we’ve got stuff we’ve got to clean up.”
RS-M (18-5) scored six of those first-inning runs with two outs, providing far more run support than North-South all-star Jersey Howie would need in the circle. Howie allowed six hits but struck out eight, including three in the first inning to set the tone for the game.
Six different Trojans had multiple hits, and Lacie Gibson had two in the first inning alone as RS-M sent 13 batters to the plate.
At that point it was clear that the Trojans, who won their three District 4 games by a combined score of 46-3, would be on their way to Upper State.
They’ll host District 3 winner Lewisville on Friday, while Dixie (District 1) and McBee (District 2) are the other Upper State representatives.