The Mississippi High School Activities Association did the Independence Wildcats Fast Pitch Softball team little or no favors with the 2021 3A play-off Bracket. After demolishing Coldwater in a two game home series to close out the regular season the Lady Cats opening round opponent, Amanda Elzy ran out of players and desire to travel to Independence so the decision was made to forfeit before the first round ever began.
Moving into the second round, the Lady Wildcats would face the 5th ranked Houston Hilltoppers. Houston finished the season with a 22-2 overall record and a spotless 8-0 mark in 3A. Seventh grader Seventh grade sensation, Allyson Glover started on the mound for Independence and Paige Kilgore got the nod for Houston. Glover pitched 20 games for the Wildcats this season recording 109 strikeouts and allowing 28 walks. Her rival on this night, Paige Kilgore pitched 17 games for the Hilltoppers in her senior season recording 226 strike-outs and giving up 33 walks
The Lady Toppers wasted littler getting on the scoreboard scoring twice to take a 2-0 lead. The Lady Cats were unable to score in their half of the first and Houston took the advantage by adding 5 more runs to make it 7-0. Glover continued to battle in the third, often working out from behind the count but Houston was unable to put a runner across the plate and Kilgore did the same to leave the score 7-0 going into the fourth inning.
The Toppers added another run in the fourth though the Lady Wildcats continued to battle back making play after play including a homerun stealing catch deep in center field by Brooklyn Pace that kept Sydney Bean from trotting around the bases.
The game was decided in the sixth inning when the Hilltoppers exploded for 6 unanswered runs giving them the 14-0 victory.
Glover pitched 6 innings giving up 6 hits while striking out 5 and walking 10 Houston batters. Offensively, the Lady Cats were shut-out at the plate by Kilgore who allowed no runs,no hits, and no errors in 5 innings on the mound. The Lady Cats now travel to Houston on Tuesday 27,down one game in this best of 3 series.
Game two in the series was all Houston from the start with the Lady Hilltoppers scoring 2 runs in the first inning and adding 5 more in the second to take a 7-0 lead. Neither team scored in the 3rd or the fifth but Houston added 1 in the fourth to increase their lead to 8-0. The game ended in the sixth when the Hilltopper bats exploded to make it 14-0
For the second straight game the Lady Cats were shut out at the plat producing 0 runs on 0 hits.
Allyson Glover was the losing pitcher for the IHS and she and the Lady Cats gave 14 runs on 12 hits and 5 walks wile committing 3 errors.
The season was not a disappointment however for the Wildcats as they finished with a 17-5 record and made it to the 2nd round of the 3A play-offs compared 2 years ago when they were 4-16 and exitd the play-offs in the first round.
