Jolie Hays pitches Northwest Rankin to 4-2 win over South Panola to clinch 2023 6A Championship
HATTIESBURG — Northwest Rankin left the 2022 season with a lot of “what ifs” after losing a tight South State series to eventual champion Petal.
They’ll have no such troubles this off-season.
The Cougars built a four-run lead en route to a 4-2 win over South Panola to clinch the 2023 MHSAA Class 6A Softball Championship Thursday night at the USM Softball Complex.
After hurling 11 strikeouts in seven innings in Tuesday’s 6-5 Game 1 win, junior pitch Jolie Hays was rock-solid again Thursday, and this time right from the start.
She retired 14 of the first 17 batters she faced.
“I knew we had to come out with the same intensity we had at the end of the first game the other night,” Hays said. “Everybody has wanted this so bad and it’s what we’ve worked for all season. It’s the best feeling in the world to finally get what we wanted.”
Northwest Rankin (32-4) took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, when Chloe Miller singled up the middle to bring Mackenzie Folse home. Madalyn Smith followed with a double to bring Miller home, and the Lady Cougars took a 2-0 lead to the third inning.
They struck for two more runs in the fourth — Miller hit a sac fly to center, and Hannah Sullivan scored the final run on Smith’s single.
Hays did the rest. She pitched all seven innings and allowed one earned run on five hits, didn’t issue a walk and struck out six.
The Tigers (19-7) showed some fight late. Both of South Panola’s runs came in the sixth, when Sadie Bright singled to right to bring Kaylin Hubbard home and Grady Wilson drove Shania Fondren home with a seeing-eye single up the middle.
“I was proud of the way we fought,” South Panola coach Ashleigh Hicks said. “We haven’t quit all year, and we were in it to the end tonight. I hate it for my seniors, because they won’t get another shot at this, but we’re young and we’ve got a great chance to get back here.”
South Panola's two late runs weren't enough — Bright got caught trying to take an extra base, which ended the threat in the sixth. And Hays slammed the door in the seventh, inducing one ground ball and striking out Addison Sanders and Hubbard to put the game away.
“We felt like we had a chance to do this last year,” Northwest Rankin coach Mike Armstrong said. “We gave up four runs in a three-game series against Petal and got beat. So our goal this year was to do it again and this time, finish it.”
The Lady Cougars did exactly that, and proved it with a raucous dogpiled on top of Hays on the mound to celebrate.
“I’ll never forget it,” Hays said. “I’ll never forget it. It’s the greatest feeling in the world, and I love it.”
