The big question at the softball Final Four was, “Holton’s here … uh, who?”
Coleman had been a dominant No. 1 all season long and had a gaudy 32-2 record heading into the Division 4 quarterfinals, but dropped a 6-3 decision to Holton to come up short of the ultimate goal.
“We had more hits than they did,” said Coleman coach Chad Klopf, “but we didn’t get them when we needed them.
“Their pitcher threw a lot of off-speed stuff and we weren’t patient enough against her. When we were, we got a base hit or a walk but, when we weren’t, we’d pop it right up.”
The Comets blasted their way in having won the first four games of the tourney by a combined score of 68-6, but the bats were baffled most of the way.
“We got two on to start the seventh,” said Klopf, “and that was the first time. We started all of the first six innings with an out and that is not like us at all.”
The pitching and defense were not exactly as dominant as usual, either.
“We had one inning where there was a complete mental breakdown,” Klopf said. “We made more mistakes in one inning than I think we made all season.”
Coleman won the state title in 2005, but getting back to that level with a talented group that had never been to the Final Four proved to big too big a hill to climb.
“The quarterfinal was a different atmosphere,” said Klopf. “We had a lot of different people watching us, and I think that, plus the idea of what was waiting for us in the next game, put a little more pressure on.
“Still, if we had put even a couple more leadoff hitters on, there is no way that team would have beaten us.”
The loss was tough to take, but time will heal the wounds and leave evidence that this was quite a season.
Carley Starnes, Cassidy Tucker, Laken Berthume and Kaylie Scott all earned All-State honors and Grace Staley was Honorable Mention.
“We’re disheartened,” said Klopf, “but down the road we are all going to remember this as a great year. You can’t take anything away from this group.”