The 2017 season was bound to be a transitional one for the Russellville softball team.
Fresh off the first-ever regional tournament appearance in program history (which led, somewhat surprisingly, to the first-ever state tournament appearance in program history), the Lady Golden Tigers were faced with the task of replacing six senior starters from a team that won a school-record 38 games last season. Veteran head coach John Smith, who had overseen Russellville’s transformation from pretender to contender in just three short years, retired last fall, and Kathryn Montgomery was hired away from Shoals Christian in October to take his place.
In the middle of all this change was Kalli Beth Daniel, one of the few key contributors—along with centerfielder Kayla Cochran, infielder Karlie Moore and pitcher Emma Whitfield—still around from that 2016 team. An All-State performer as a junior who suited up for the North squad at All-Star Week in Montgomery last summer, Daniel began a transitional phase of her own in November when she signed a letter of intent to continue her career after high school at Delta State University.
With many ties to the immediate past gone and a bright future already beckoning, Daniel wasn’t quite sure what to make of the present.
“We have a lot of younger girls coming up,” she said in November, assessing Russellville’s outlook for 2017. “We lost six players, so we’re kind of re-making the team. Maybe we can re-make it and get back to state again and actually win it. But it’s one step at a time.”
Not all those steps, as it turned out, would be in the same direction. The Lady Golden Tigers scuffled a bit out of the gate, dropping their first three games, and found themselves sitting at 12-15 in early April, with less than three weeks left in what had been to that point a trying regular season.
“The best way I can explain it is to compare it to an obstacle course,” Daniel said last week. “There have been some ups and downs. We’ve had different things we’ve had to face, moving people around and dealing with injuries—we had to see how our lineup should go. It was frustrating. We’d get behind in a game, and things would just get worse. Then we’d finally break through with two or three wins, but we’d go back down again. We just kept digging ourselves a hole.
“It was definitely a struggle, but we got through it. We never quit. We just kept going. We would get over one wall and then come right up to another wall. We had to jump through some hoops to get where we are, but we never quit.”
Where the Lady Golden Tigers are (following a strong finishing stretch that saw them win 15 of their last 22 games) is exactly where they hoped to be all along—headed to Huntsville and the North Regional Tournament for a second straight season. Suffice it to say that this year’s experience has been different. It’s been more of a grind, certainly—more demanding, but also more rewarding.
“The goal we set in our minds was to be back here at regionals, like last year,” said Daniel, who helped Russellville reach that goal by collecting eight hits in 15 at bats at last week’s Class 5A, Area 16 tournament in Moulton. “That’s what we all wanted. To get here, we had to put others before ourselves. If somebody would get down on themselves in a game, we would make it a point to go pick them up. If they weren’t in the lineup [to hit], we’d tell them, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it, just pick up your part in the field.’
“It definitely feels different this time. We’re going in with newer people. It’s gonna be difficult, but we can still do it.”
Russellville finished runner-up at the North Regional last May, rallying past Ardmore for a thrilling 7-6 win to clinch a berth in the state tournament. Fittingly, the Lady Golden Tigers (27-21-1) will open this year’s regional run with a rematch against Ardmore, the Area 15 champion, on Thursday at 3 p.m. at the Huntsville Sportsplex.
The tournament is double-elimination, but Daniel said that getting off to a strong start is critical.
“It would be huge,” she said. “We need to win this first game. We absolutely have to win this first game. That would give us the confidence we need to get going. We’re bad to get down on ourselves and think about things way too much, so the best thing for us would be to show up and show out and play that first game the way we can.
“I believe that we can beat them. We beat them last year, and they lost a lot of players, too.”
Rebuilding on the fly is certainly something Russellville can relate to. The Lady Golden Tigers have successfully integrated no fewer than five key freshmen into a versatile offensive attack that has produced a .329 team batting average and 5.6 runs per game. Ninth-graders like utility player A.J. Taylor (who leads the team with 57 hits, 31 RBIs and 36 stolen bases), catcher Madison Murray (who went 7-for-12 at the area tournament last week and is now batting .350 with 31 runs scored), outfielder Alivia Clemmons (.336 average with 25 RBIs and 15 steals), third baseman Autumn Logan (.309 average) and pitcher/outfielder Krista Sikes all play vital roles.
“I’ve been very impressed with our freshman class,” said Daniel, who bats leadoff and ranks first on the team in average (.426), extra-base hits (14), runs scored (45), on-base percentage (.510) and multi-hit games (16). “They did show out this year. Those girls know how to play. All we had to do was mesh together.”
That process took a little longer than expected, due in large part to an injury to junior infielder Sydney Burcham. Burcham’s return to full health in mid-April was a major catalyst for the team’s strong finish; she stabilized the infield defense with her steady glove at second base and also provides a big bat [.347 average with two home runs, 14 RBIs and a .484 OBP in 64 plate appearances) behind Daniel and Taylor in the third spot in the order.
“We didn’t really start playing good until the end of the season,” Daniel said. “That’s when we turned it around and started doing better.”
The Lady Golden Tigers, who clinched a regional berth when senior Madison Lamon’s three-run double gave them an 8-5 win over East Limestone last week, will try to keep the positive vibes flowing this week in Huntsville. In addition to providing big-time production at the plate, veteran players like Daniel, Cochran (.314 average with 10 extra-base hits and 30 RBIs) and Moore (a sophomore first baseman who leads the team with three home runs and 10 doubles) can also help prepare their less experienced teammates for the big stage.
“It’s so much different than a regular game or even an area game,” Daniel said of playing in the regional tournament. “There’s so much more on the line. Every strikeout counts. Every walk counts. Every throw counts. It all counts. Every play could put you in the loser’s bracket, and after that every game could be your last game.
“I expect good competition this year, but I expect our girls to step up and play the way they know how. I expect us to come together closer as a team. I hope we go to the next round. But if we don’t, we got to regionals, and that’s all we can ask for with such a young team.”
