It’s a busy time of year.
Graduations. Vacations. Post-season celebrations.
Edgewood softball coach Mick Hammett was at home Friday shuffling through papers looking for the list of shirt sizes for his players. Sectional championship swag had to be ordered after his No. 8 Mustangs pummeled host and No. 6 Cascade 13-0 on Thursday in the sectional final.
The win was not the ‘Wow’ factor afterward so much as the margin of victory over a top-10 team that had 24 wins, including a 5-4 victory over Edgewood earlier this month.
“That surprised me, too,” Hammett said. “I was thinking maybe 5-3. I really thought we had a good chance to win. I felt confident.
“I always tell the girls not to be overconfident or cocky. But we did a lot better than than I thought.”
Uh-huh. Like 18 hits — six for extra bases — and just five strikeouts. On the other side, Ally Bland was striking out 11 and giving up just one hit and four walks while allowing just one batter to reach second.
As a result, Edgewood (27-4) will travel to No. 5 New Palestine (21-7) on June 2 for a regional showdown at 7 p.m.
“It was definitely shocking the amount we beat them by,” Bland said. “But we were into the game. We were ready for it. We knew we could beat them and had a really good shot.
“We had all the confidence in ourselves and each other, and we played together.”
They also played smarter, with great at-bats to continue the hot hitting they’ve had lately. For the week, the Mustangs scored 27 runs on 33 hits while Bland tossed 19 innings, giving up 12 hits and two runs and walking seven while fanning 33 (11 each game).
“I think we’ve got our mindset totally good right now,” Hammett said. “In talking with the girls about what we need to do as far as making contact, we’ve had a lot of strikeouts. I’m not going to lie. We were being undisciplined and not in the right mindset, which sometimes was getting us to a bad count.
“So we were working a lot on that. And then from Tuesday and facing that girl, I knew she was better than any of the three pitchers Cascade had. We went up there and only struck out four times and put the ball in play. I felt that we we’re in pretty good shape there.”
But when Ally started the game off by striking out? “‘Holy smokes,’ I thought,” Hammett said. “But everything went up from there.”
The hitting confidence has been building late in the season as Edgewood won 13-of-14. The Mustangs have scored eight or more runs in nine of those wins, but getting five off Northview’s Maggie Kraus set the table for the destruction of Cascade’s staff.
Krause, Bland said, has good spin and good speed, and they got on the pitching machines to get ready for her pace. The other part was being wise to her rise ball and putting the ball in play with two strikes.
“I think just the past few games we’ve had, we had a whole week where we played six games and we hit the ball pretty well,” Bland said. “And going up against Maggie, I knew if we could hit her the way we did, then we could beat anybody in our sectional.”
Whooping the Cadets
Thursday prep time and trip to the game was anything but quiet and tense for nine seniors knowing each game could be their last. It translated more into determination than playing scared.
“Honestly, we were just loose and having fun before the game,” Bland said. “We hit around at school and played hacky-sack. That always helps with the nerves.
“And just the bond we’ve had a seniors has grown a lot. On the bus ride over, we were having fun and supporting one another. I know having eight other seniors behind us helped us play more free.”
The final vs. Cascade was 0-0 through three innings. Edgewood had mentally prepared to face junior Grace Parks. She’s on the same travel ball team with a few of the Mustangs, so they knew her well. Instead, Cascade’s coach tossed a curveball and started Lacey Godby.
“Now, we had to figure out what she has,” Bland said. “The first time through was nothing different we hadn’t seen, so we just went off that.”
And went off, period. Ally’s twin sister Madi lit the fuse with a triple to start the fourth. Soon, Edgewood led 3-0.
“That inning just took the anxiety off us,” Bland said. “Let us play how we know how to play. After that, it was us having fun from there. Madi’s hit, that was definitely a tone-setter that inning.
“Her on third and our 4-5-6 batters up next, we knew from there we had it.”
It made things plenty easier for Bland in the circle, too.
“It definitely took pressure off my shoulders,” she said. “I felt I was able to attack and not worry about giving up hits.
“The first time we played them, I had four walks. My defense was incredible behind me, so that helped me focus in on just attacking the batters. I definitely knew I had to start ahead a lot better. The previous game, I got in the hole a lot. My coach told me to get ahead and make them start chasing.”
And the offense kept coming.
“We talked to them about the importance of making contact,” Hammett said. “You do that, and you have a chance to get a hit, and you force them to field the ball.”
And that was one of Cascade’s Achillies heels. Assistant Brad Austin took a look at the games the Cadets had lost or given up a lot of runs. In fact, almost all of their errors came in two losses.
“They were forced to make plays,” Hammett said. “And sometimes, they’d shoot themselves in the foot. And that happened a few times.”
Edgewood led 6-0 after five, 9-0 after six and piled on a few more in the seventh and never let up.
“Just getting that last out, it was a great relief,” Bland said. “It was just a ‘we did it’ moment. And getting to share it with my teammates was fun.”
Can they slay the Dragons?
They hope there is more fun ahead, but New Palestine, once again, stands in the way. The Dragons breathed fire all over the Mustangs in 2017-18 while rolling to first two of three straight 3A state titles. In 2024, New Pal was a 4A runner up.
“We know it’ll be tough,” Bland said. “But we have good shot. We want to keep playing and making it as far as we can and do great things.”
But, Edgewood doesn’t have to play those teams. Just the 2026 version. And the 2026 version of Edgewood is one of the best Hammett’s had in 30-plus years.
“They understand we’re playing good teams now,” Hammett said. “But they haven’t won 20-some games by accident.”
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: ‘That surprised me, too’ How Edgewood softball won sectional title
Reporting by Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
