Woodland pitcher Railey Williams threw ever pitch of the team’s three-game run in the state tournament Tuesday.
Woodland’s state tournament run ended in its third game of the day Tuesday, and in the end it was old nemesis Maplesville that landed the final blow to the Lady Bobcats’ season.
Maplesville followed a demoralizing trend that haunted Woodland throughout the day. The Lady Red Devils scored seven of their 10 runs with two outs, two games after Woodland lost 7-1 to Hackleburg, which scored six of its seven runs with two outs.
A couple of big innings were the difference in both Woodland losses, which the Bobcats sandwiched around a 2-1 win over Leroy in the second game of the day.
Against Hackleburg, a six-run second inning provided the game’s decisive turn early. Against Maplesville, which bested Woodland in the regionals last week as well, a four-run fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie, and Woodland was never able to close ground after that.
For the second straight year Railey Williams pitched every inning of Woodland’s state tournament run. The jewel of those three games was the win against Leroy. She went seven innings and allowed one unearned run on three hits and a walk, while striking out six.
But on one of the hottest days of the year it’s difficult to say that the workload, combined with the weather, didn’t have an effect on her performance. Woodland started the day at 9 a.m. and finished shortly before 7 p.m. on a day with temperatures upwards of 90 degrees accompanied by a relentless blazing sunshine.
In all she threw 353 pitches over the course of 20 innings and gave up a total of 15 earned runs on 25 hits, with 15 of those 25 hits coming the final game against Maplesville.
Woodland’s offense just couldn’t keep pace. Alyssa Taylor went 4-for-10 with an RBI over the course of the three games Tuesday, but no other Woodland player had more than three hits. Kinsley McDaniel went 3-for-7 and scored a run, and Lucy Phillips went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored in the loss to Maplesville. Woodland managed just 15 hits in the three games.
This Woodland team did something that no other team in school history had done, making the state tournament in back-to-back seasons.
With seven starters scheduled to return, including Williams, Taylor and promising eighth-grader Allie Puckett, the Lady Bobcats could be poised to make it three straight trips by the time May of 2027 rolls around.
Woodland finishes the season with a record of 24-14-1.
