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North Augusta Jackets Win Long-Awaited First State Title in Softball

Aiken Standard, Kyle Dawson

NORTH AUGUSTA 8, CATAWBA RIDGE 0
The North Augusta softball team was only going to accept one outcome this season.

The Yellow Jackets have been so good for so many years, yet it seemed like there would be some new reason each year that their season would end earlier than they wanted.

Last year may have been the most painful, when a loose and carefree Darlington team came to Riverview Park and stunned North Augusta with two wins in one day to steal the district title, sending off another senior class with the sting of coming up just short.

The juniors on that team said their goodbyes, then set out on a course to make sure they wouldn’t leave the field with the same tears they saw in the eyes of their older teammates.

That course encountered another bump, this time a loss at the start of the Lower State tournament, but they made sure it wouldn’t be anything more than the jolt they needed.

Wednesday night they took the field at Catawba Ridge a win away from the Class AAAA state championship, and behind senior pitcher Katelyn Cochran and a lineup with several key contributors they made the history that they decided a year ago they would make.

Cochran, the Class AAAA Player of the Year, was brilliant in the circle one final time, and the 900th strikeout of her career was the final out in an 8-0 victory that gave North Augusta its long-awaited first state championship.

Once again the tears flowed from the Jackets (33-2), but these ones felt different than any ever experienced by this program.

“It feels amazing. We’ve always had all eyes on us, and we’ve never been able to do it,” said Cochran. “But tonight, we showed who North Augusta was and we played North Augusta softball tonight. The whole team, every girl played their heart out tonight.”

Cochran tossed a one-hit shutout for the second night in a row, this time striking out 11 batters against just one walk. She didn’t hit two home runs like she did in Tuesday’s 4-0 win in the first game of the championship series to set up Wednesday’s clincher, but she didn’t need to. Eight different Jackets recorded a hit, and they kept the pressure on Catawba Ridge throughout the game by producing timely offense.

“I just knew if we could get one, it would kind of open up the gates a little bit for us,” said head coach Craig Gilstrap. “It finally did.”

Audri Bates provided the big blast in the top of the third inning with a two-out, two-run home run to break a scoreless tie and snap a slump at the plate for the Jackets’ top hitter during the regular season.

“It was amazing,” said Bates, who after crossing home plate blew a kiss to a vocal group of Catawba Ridge fans. “I was really frustrated with myself at the plate, obviously, (in the Lower State championship against Hartsville). Everyone knows I was in a little bit of a hitting slump since playoffs. I wanted to make this special for my team, like I said last time. I wanted to pull through, and I wanted to get things going. It’s always a domino effect.”

The next domino to fall came in the next two at-bats. All-State selection Nevaeh Ross doubled, then came home when Haidyn Hutto did the same.

That gave North Augusta a 3-0 lead midway through the third inning and, as it has been for the better part of four years, that was more than enough run support for Cochran.

Audrey Wilson’s leadoff double in the fourth inning was the only hit the Copperheads (26-6) would muster, and after that they only had two base runners - one when Wilson was hit by a pitch in the sixth, and another when Kendra Murray reached on an error in the seventh.

The Jackets were far enough ahead that it wouldn’t hurt them even if a run or two came across, but they refused to even allow that - this year, they weren’t going to be left thinking what might have been had they only had one more inning.

Two more runs scored on two Catawba Ridge errors in the top of the fourth, and two more came across in the sixth on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly.

The last big blow came from Kadence Adams, who bashed a solo home run to lead off the top of the seventh inning to put the game even more out of reach.

Minutes later, it was time for more tearful goodbyes to the seniors - these ones were more sweet than bitter, though.

“I love this school,” said Gilstrap, who said a goodbye of his own with his retirement after nearly 30 years teaching and coaching at North Augusta. “I’m so proud of those seniors.”

The senior class had been a part of so many wins, with several having started since the eighth or ninth grade, but never one this big. 

Cochran’s final game was the last piece in a storied high school career, and it capped a dominant stretch during the playoffs - she started all 10 games and pitched a total of 69 innings, allowing just three runs (one earned) on 20 hits while striking out 137 batters.

During that stretch she tossed two no-hitters, and in Monday’s win she drove in more runs (four) than she allowed during the entire postseason.

She was dominant one last time in front a crowd that tried to get into her head with chants of “overrated”, but they were quickly silenced by her pitching and her teammates’ bats.

“That kind of stuff fuels me,” she said. “I love it. I live for that, so that was really keeping me going. It felt really good to give a good wave goodbye.”

Gilstrap said it helped the Jackets to already have played in front of a hostile crowd last week at Hartsville, when they had to win twice in one day to win the Lower State title. Those wins were their third and fourth in a row in elimination games, dating back to a loss to South Florence in the Lower State tournament opener that ended their 23-game winning streak and put their season on the line.

They responded the only way they would allow themselves to, winning their final six games of the season and making sure there would finally be no “what-ifs” to face as they head into the summer.

“Everything that happened with that rain-out, having to move the game to South Aiken on that Saturday, kind of just threw things into a whack,” Gilstrap said. “Because of that we got into the losers’ bracket, and then they play Monday, and then we go to Florence on Wednesday, and then we had to go beat Hartsville twice on Friday.

“With the girls, it felt like if we got through Hartsville we had a good chance, because we knew that we were the ones that were kind of eyeing each other the whole year. But it’s a testament to those girls. That senior class, they just refused to lose.”