Corrigan-Camden softball is one of just four teams remaining in the Class 2A Division I state playoffs after defeating Shelbyville 4-3 to win a regional championship Saturday in Hudson.
They did drop Game 2 of the series on Friday night, 8-4.
For the second consecutive game, Corrigan fell behind 4-0 in the first inning. Walks, a double, single and error were the cause.
The Lady Dogs did cut into the lead in the fourth, when Addison Garcia singled. Skye Six tripled to drive in a run, then went home when the throw to third bounced into the dugout.
Yet, that would be the closest they would get Friday. Shelbyville put up four more before Corrigan got two in the seventh to end the contest.
“We started flat and our attitudes were not great at the beginning,” Corrigan-Camden coach Rusti Hall said of the Friday night loss. “I told them that we can't wait until the seventh inning to decide that we're going to have quality at-bats. We didn't have quality at-bats; we were watching too many first-pitch strikes and we waited too late. We had a dropped fly ball, a missed groundball and we like to make it interesting. I'm hoping tomorrow is a new day.”
Saturday was a brighter day for the Lady Dogs, played under a hot noon sun.
For a third game, the Lady Dragons got off to a good start, leading 3-0 this time before Corrigan got on the board with one in the fourth. A Johnson double and Addison Garcia single produced the run.
It was the final two innings that would be the difference.
“They were exciting,” Hall said of the last few innings. “About the fifth inning, we seemed kind of down and we had been getting on base every inning, we just weren't scoring.”
A single by Cameron Parrish and Johnson reaching on error knotted the game at three each in the sixth.
“That tied the game up, and I was like, ‘I think we might win,’” the coach said.
Addisyn Platt got the seventh inning going on a base hit, then Parish did the same before Johnson doubled to win the game and punch the Lady Dogs’ ticket into the state semifinals.
“Somehow, they don't give up and they have all the fight left them when their back is against the wall. Really, we didn't show any frustration. We came out pretty pumped from the get-go. After about the fifth inning when we had only scored one, our body language had deflated a little bit. When we got the runners on in the sixth inning and scored, we were back on cloud nine.”
Ganado will be the opponent starting Tuesday in Navasota at 7 p.m. Game 2 is set for Waller at 7 p.m. and Game 3, if necessary, will be back in Navasota at noon Saturday.
“At this point, everybody is good if they are still in,” Hall said of Ganado. “I know the district they come out of is normally pretty tough.”
The state semifinals are yet another step in the already remarkable journey through the 2025 postseason.
“It is pretty incredible. They have taken us on a wild ride this year. This is the first time in school history that any (Corrigan-Camden) girls’ team has been out of the fourth round of playoffs (in any sport). It is pretty special and really special to be doing it with such a young group of kids. I expected us to be a playoff team. I didn't expect us to be this type of playoff team.”
