By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports
SULPHUR – The dream of a three-peat for Buckeye softball faded away Saturday afternoon as the top-seeded Lady Panthers lost to Vandebilt Catholic, 7-3, in the Division II Select championship game.
Buckeye won the Class 3A state title in 2022 before beating Vandebilt for the Division II Select title last season. After making it back to the championship game for a third straight year, the Lady Panthers’ bats went cold on Saturday.
The two teams were scoreless through three innings before Vandebilt put four on the board in the fourth inning, including a two-run home run by pitcher Corin Talbot and an RBI double by Ava Lirette.
When the Lady Panthers had a chance to respond at the plate, they went down in order in the fourth, and Talbot helped her cause with a second two-run homer in the fifth inning to give the Terriers a 6-0 lead. A sixth-inning RBI single by shortstop Lauren Baudoin made the lead seven.
Like any good defending champion, Buckeye fought back. Adysen Mitchell’s RBI double in the sixth scored Sidney St. Pé to get the Lady Panthers on the board, but Talbot struck out Rosalee Richey to end the inning with two runners on.
St. Pé’s one-out single in the seventh brought the score to 7-2, and senior all-state pitcher Olivia Henry’s RBI single cut the lead to four with two runners on. However, Mitchell lined out to end the game and Buckeye’s hopes of a three-peat.
Buckeye coach Justin Kees said the Lady Panthers’ bats stayed quiet for too long on Saturday.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Kees said. “We laid everything we had on the field today. Everything’s good. I’m very proud of what we’ve got.”
Buckeye scored three runs in the first inning and held on to defeat E.D. White 3-2 in Friday’s semifinal to advance to the championship game. That was enough for Henry, who gave up just four hits and struck out seven batters in the semifinal victory.
On Saturday, though, Henry just wasn’t enough. In softball, she said, sometimes that happens.
When the Lady Panthers won their first title in 2022, they were ranked seventh and Iowa was the top seed.
“Everybody had their bets on Iowa,” Henry said. “Everybody knew they were the better team, but we were the better team that day. And last year when we played Vandebilt, we were the better team that day. And today, they came out and they were the better team.”
Kees said he is extremely proud of his senior class led by Henry and including St. Pé, center fielder Allison Brossett and utility player Kennedi Hines. That group was a part of the first team in school history to win back-to-back championships and to make the title game three straight seasons.
“Buckeye is used to coming to Sulphur, but coming on Saturday for three straight years is unprecedented,” Kees said. “We laid the groundwork – that’s the real legacy. Like I told them, it’s not about what we did. It’s about those little 9-year-old, 10-year-old kids that are looking up and want to wear No. 3 because Liv wears No. 3, that want to wear No. 12 because Sid wears 12 and 4 because Allison wears 4 and 19 because that’s what Kennedi wears. That’s what means the most to us. I couldn’t be more proud of these girls. They left a true legacy.”
That legacy is what really matters, Henry said.
“That’s really all that I wanted to accomplish,” she said. “Looking back at my eighth-grade year and my freshman year, if you would have told me I would accomplish all this – I mean, yeah, I’m sad right now, but I would have thought you were a liar. Just looking back and seeing all that we have accomplished has been amazing. I hope that I’ve been a good leader and a good role model to these younger girls.”
As she gets ready for graduation in three weeks and then prepares to head off to Southeastern Louisiana, where she signed a scholarship to pitch, Henry took time Saturday to reflect on what wearing a Lady Panther uniform has meant to her over the past five seasons.
“This program means everything to me,” Henry said. “These girls, they’re not just my teammates; they’re my sisters. … I think I spent more time on that field and in the cages than I did in my classes. I mean, this program has been everything to me. This community is everything to me. Like you see here, everybody loves everybody. I walk around the school and everybody knows everybody. I wouldn’t want to go to any other school or be in any other community than Buckeye.”