It was entirely fitting that Natalie Herrington, on her 99th pitch of the game, should get a strikeout to sew up a championship.
The Petal senior carried her team one last time, lifting the Panthers to a 6-1 victory over Hernando in the third and deciding game of the Class 6A Softball State Championships Saturday night at the Southern Miss Softball Complex.
It was the first state title for Petal (26-5) in fast-pitch, in the program’s third shot in the state finals, although the Panthers won it all in slow-pitch in 2006. Hernando (28-12) was denied a chance to repeat as 6A champions.
“We stayed pretty calm this whole day,” Petal coach Wendy Hogue said. “We were very confident coming in here today, and we played like a team that expected to win.”
Herrington was in command of the circle almost from start to finish. The future Pearl River Wildcat struck out nine, walked one and only allowed three hits, two of them back-to-back doubles to open the top of the sixth that gave Hernando its only run.
“I always take it game-by-game,” Herrington said. “To get here and get MVP, it feels like an out-of-body experience. It’s amazing.
“We really mix up out pitches a lot. We learn the batters through the series, to see what they can hit and what they can’t hit. We gave them a lot of everything.”
The game started almost five hours after its scheduled starting time because of the heavy rainstorms that swept through the Hattiesburg area Saturday afternoon.
“You try to eliminate distractions,” Hogue said. “Winners adjust and that’s what we’ve been talking about the entire season. It’s a storybook season, for sure.”
There didn’t seem to be much doubt about the outcome after the first inning, when Petal took a lead it would never relinquish.
Senior Kinley Hogue, playing in her last game in her mother’s last game as coach of the Panthers, was hit by a pitch to lead off against Tiger senior right-hander Julia Shaw.
Hogue was sacrificed to second, then Herrington singled and junior Emma Kate Fimiano drew a walk to load the bases and Ryleigh Wallace blooped a single into shallow leftfield to score Hogue.
Herrington finished with three singles on Saturday, and was 6-for-12 in the series, to go with her 21 strikeouts in the three games. It all added up to Most Valuable Player honors.
“I want to produce runs for my team whenever I can,” Herrington said. “If I’m going to be in the lineup, then I want to get runs on the board to help myself out in the circle.”
Hernando appeared to be poised to respond when a throwing error on a bunt by senior Rylee Eyster to lead off the bottom of the first put a runner at second. But in short order, Herrington got a popup in the infield and two strikeouts to end the threat.
Petal committed two errors in the game, but both proved harmless.
Shaw matched Herrington through the next three innings, with Petal still clinging to a 1-0 lead. But the Panthers broke it open in the fifth, scoring five runs on four hits and two walks.
Senior Kate Sanford, at the bottom of Petal’s batting order, opened the rally with a leadoff walk, then Hogue beat out a bunt, and Sanford took third when the throw was wide of first.
Senior Saylor Burden drove in a run with a sacrifice, then Fimiano crushed a 2-2 curveball into the gap in right-center for a two-run triple.
“I knew who was on base, and I knew we could get it done,” Fimiano said. “I just needed to make contact. It was an off-speed pitch, and I just took it that way.
“I saw Coach Hogue coming around second and she was just throwing and going that arm around to wave me around. But I knew I was going for three all the way.”
A walk to Wallace and a steal put runners at second and third and junior BeBe Byrd drove them both in with a single to right for a 6-0 lead. Pumped with a big lead, Herrington struck out the side in order in the bottom of the fifth and coasted home.
“It was amazing,” Herrington said. “When my team gave me those runs, it really sealed the deal for me. I knew we had it then. It was the perfect ending for all of us.”
Petal loaded the bases in the top of the seventh, but failed to score off senior Janna Shaw, who replaced her sister in the circle after Byrd’s RBI hit. Julia Shaw (18-8) took the loss for Hernando. She gave up eight hits, walked three and struck out two.
Herrington shrugged off the two doubles to lead off the top of the sixth, getting three routing flyball outs, and the Tigers went 1-2-3 in the seventh, setting off a red-clad celebration that went far into the night.
“It is incredible, just an incredible feeling,” Fimiano said. “We’ve worked so hard, so, so hard. From the beginning of the season, we knew it was special, we knew we could do it. We’ve had three-game series every time and we came back and won, so we didn’t have any doubts.”
Kinley Hogue had another solid game at the top of the Petal order. She was 5 of 9 at the plate with four RBIs in the series. She said the chance to win a state championship in her and her mom’s last game was an unforgettable moment.
“I just can’t explain it,” said the younger Hogue. “This senior class, I’ve been playing ball with since I was about 10 years old, and back then one of our dads said that by our senior year, we were going to win a state championship. And we did just that.
“For my mom, it being her last year of coaching and my last year to play for her is just an unreal feeling. Being able to play under her at all has been a dream. Then to come out on top on the biggest stage, in the last game of the year, I just don’t think it can be written any better.”
It was Wendy Hogue who started the fast-pitch program at Petal in 2000, and established the Panthers as a force in the softball world before moving on to coach first at William Carey then at Southern Miss.
She left USM after the 2019 season to return to Petal for the chance to coach her daughter and a talented senior class. She now gets the rare privilege of closing her coaching career with a championship victory.
“Petal fast-pitch has been good for a long, long time,” Hogue said. “To be the team that finally got over that hump, it feels good.
“It’s very special. When they gave me the opportunity to start the program 23 years ago, to be honest, I never thought I’d be standing here today. To leave and come back then win a state title, I’m truly blessed.”
