MURFREESBORO ― Alcoa’s first-inning bunt single drew stares between Liberty Creek pitcher Kaylor West and her coach, Kelsey Cartwright.
Cartwright gestured with her hand wiping her forehead and shrugged at West.
The pressure was off. Now West can just pitch.
The Western Kentucky commit pitched a masterful complete game as Liberty Creek captured its second straight TSSAA softball state championship, beating Alcoa, 7-1, in the Class 2A final on May 23 at MTSU.
But while West was impressive in the circle, it wasn’t as dominant as last year’s state title run. West threw a perfect game to help Liberty Creek knock off Huntingdon in last year’s championship. The question coming into this year’s final was could she do it again.
The idea of back-to-back perfect games even crept into West’s head.
“I tried not to think about it and I actually had a talk with coach Kelsey who told me that you can’t duplicate the past. Perfect games are rare and hard to do so why try to live up to that again,” West said. “Then Alcoa got that bunt down for a single and all of a sudden it was like a huge weight was lifted.”
West wasn’t going to back down from a challenge. If the opportunity presented itself to throw another spotless title-clinching game, she was going to go after it. But Cartwright didn’t want West to muddy her thoughts chasing a perfection.
“Last year was a gift from God,” Cartwright said. “That’s a rare, rare thing that happens. That’s not the expectation. The expectation is to pitch, hit your spots and win games. It was funny because when Alcoa got that bunt, I looked at her and said ‘Well, we got that out of the way and you don’t have to worry about it the rest of the game.’ “
West scattered five hits and struck out three, but Alcoa had problems catching up to her fastball, meekly hitting ground balls back to West and rarely penetrating the outfield.
Junior Hailey Langston was 2-for-3 with a RBI, Maddie Floyd had three hits and Hope Marlar had a RBI triple in the first inning as Liberty Creek finished the season 32-2.
“It’s different when you’re new and no one knows who you are,” Cartwright said about last year’s championship. “But when people know who you are, its harder to win championships.”
Cartwright guided Liberty Creek on a brutal schedule that resulted in an impressive 28-0 record against Tennessee teams, including fellow state tournament participants Community and 4A state runner-up Green Hill. The Wolves only losses came against two ranked Kentucky teams early in the season and Liberty Creek becomes the school’s first program to win multiple team state titles.
“I think the expectation was really to come into this state tournament and win every game,” West said. “I’m OK with not pitching no-hitters or perfect games if it means we win. And we didn’t lose this entire week.”
Cartwright, who played at Goodpasture from 2005-2009, was a part of that program’s six straight state titles run (2003-2008). She went on to play softball at Auburn for two years before transferring to Lipscomb Academy, giving her a perspective few can match.
“Coming up in that culture just prepared me for this,” she said. “And having a talented group like we have here (at Liberty Creek) … it’s just a joy coach them and watch them play.”
Reach sports writer George Robinson at georgerobinsontheleafchronicle.com and on the X platform (formerly Twitter) @Cville_Sports.
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