How Bogue Chitto won it all
Published 10:06 pm Friday, May 12, 2017
The Bogue Chitto Lady Cats embrace at home plate after winning the 1A state championship Thursday afternoon in Ridgeland. The Lady Cats defeated Hamilton 6-2 in game two to capture the title. It’s their first since 2014, when they also defeated Hamilton. (Photo by Dylan Rubino)
It wasn’t all pretty for the Bogue Chitto Lady Cats to start the 2017 fast pitch softball season.
After starting the season 3-4 overall, including losing their first three games, Bogue Chitto head coach Scott Leggett felt like no adjustments needed to be made and the team just had to continue what they were doing.
The three loses to start the season came against West Lincoln, Enterprise and Wesson.
“We knew we had a great opportunity at the start of the season. There was never anything to turn around,” Leggett said. “The girls were confident all season long. They realized how to handle difficult situations.”
The first three losses of the season came with three of the starters for Bogue Chitto still in basketball season. Three other losses came in shortened tournament games that ended in either four or five innings.
Leggett felt like the team only had one true loss on the season when they fell 2-0 against Loyd Star back in late March.
Other than that, Leggett felt his team played to the best of its abilities the rest of the season.
Since that loss to Loyd Star, the Lady Cats won 13 of their next 14 games, en route to another state championship.
Leggett also knew his team did not have depth at the pitching position and had to rely on freshman Codi Leggett to man the pitching rotation.
The freshman delivered in every big moment down the stretch for the Lady Cats with a 21-6 overall record on the season and a 1.01 earned run average.
Leggett solidified herself as one of the best pitchers in the state with two consecutive no-hitters against Ethel in the South State title series.
Even against a dominant fast pitch program in Hamilton, Leggett stayed cool and delivered two clutch performances. Leggett only gave up three runs in game one and two runs in game two to give the Bogue Chitto offense a chance.
The offense backed up the performance of Leggett, like they did all season long and delivered Bogue Chitto their fourth state championship in school history.
The dust settled, the medals were given out and the trophy was hoisted on the diamond.
The two seniors Terrah Nelson and Cherie Savoie were sent out the right way.
“There’s not a better way to walk off the field in a state championship game,” Leggett said. “I hate to see my seniors go, but if they have to go, this is the way to go.”
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