Oxford Softball to face Tupelo for district title

Published 9:47 am Friday, April 7, 2023

It all comes down to this.

Oxford Softball will have a chance to clinch their second straight district title Tuesday night as they face off against Tupelo seeking revenge for last week’s 8-4 loss to the Golden Wave on the road.

The Lady Chargers (9-9, 3-1 Region 1-6A) fell apart defensively in that game, committing four errors on the infield to gift Tupelo easy runs.

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They were also unable to advance runners once they reached base as they racked up 10 hits in the game but were held scoreless across the final four innings of play.

“We should’ve won, we had a pretty rough game,” said head coach Tabitha Beard. “We got beat 8-4 so we have to beat them by five to win the division… so [it’s] a pretty big deal.”

Now, after over a week of drilling grounders and preaching strong fundamentals, they are hungry for another chance at the Golden Wave.

The Lady Chargers also hope their recent success in the circle will help give them an edge in the rematch after multiple pitchers stepped up with key performances in recent weeks.

First, eighth grader Paisley Walls tossed a complete game to help Oxford down Grenada in a come-from-behind victory last week before junior Madelyn Yon followed that up with a gem of her own in a run-rule defeat of Starkville on Tuesday.

“We’ve kind of used a team [effort],” Beard said when asked about the approach in the circle this season. “Madelyn Yon — she threw almost a complete game the other night against Starkville to get that 13-3 win. [Madi Jones], of course, has been with us since she’s been a seventh grader, and then this year Paisley Walls as an eighth grader stepped up and she pitched a complete gem of a game against Grenada so they’ve all taken a pretty big role in that pitching dynamic and it’s worked really well.”

Oxford won the first district championship in school history last season with an extremely young, talented roster that is now seeking to make it two in a row with another year of experience under their belts.