West Chatham 12U team takes title, advances to World Series

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CARTHAGE — When spectators gather in Alexandria, Louisiana, next week for the 2022 Dixie Youth Softball Ponytails (12U) World Series, the first pitch they’ll see will come from the arm of a Chathamite.

That’s because last week in Carthage, the West Chatham 12U All-Stars rolled through the Dixie Youth N.C. State Tournament — outscoring their opponents, 67-19 — en route to an undefeated 2022 state title and a World Series berth, the organization’s first 12U title since 2016.

The title comes on the heels of the organization’s 10U state title last season, which propelled the All-Stars to the Dixie Youth Angels (10U) World Series, where they finished third — an experience that half of this year’s 12U squad remembers well.

“My daughter, Natalie Garner, was the only girl that came back from (the 12U runner-up team last year), so you mix her in with the six girls that were coming off of the 10U team that won the state championship last year,” Aaron Garner, West Chatham 12U’s head coach, told the News + Record, “and you’ve got seven girls with state tournament experience on this team. I think that really helped us a lot.”

The team is a dynamic hodgepodge of athletes from around Western Chatham County, including four players from Bennett, two players from Goldston, three players from Silk Hope and one player, Lillie Poe, from Bonlee, along with one player from each of West Chatham’s 15U squads, which totaled 12 athletes from six different youth teams.

But West Chatham looked about as close to a cohesive unit as possible despite having hardly any pre-made chemistry with one another — and practicing together for just a month — before the state tournament.

A smashing debut

Without a district tournament due to District 5 not having enough teams to fill out a bracket this season, West Chatham’s first organized game as a team came in the tournament’s first round against Cherryville.

And, in what would be a familiar theme for most of the tournament, West Chatham dominated its cross-state opponents.

“We jumped out on them there,” Garner said. “My pitchers, Natalie Garner and Logan Thompson, held Cherryville to three hits in four innings and only gave up like one run in the first four innings. They did a great job.”

Poe, one of the tournament’s shining offensive stars, led the team in the opener with a 3-for-3 afternoon, including two doubles and a triple, while Lilly Allen added a pair of doubles herself.

West Chatham’s first-round game — a 12-5 trouncing of Cherryville — began a double-digit scoring trend that’d last for three of the remaining four games, including two straight blowout wins over Moore County, 15-7, and Pembroke, 18-2, in the second and third rounds, respectively.

The third-round matchup against Pembroke was not only the team’s first mercy-rule win, having been ahead by 16 runs after four innings, but also West Chatham’s first no-hitter, with the duo of Natalie Garner and Thompson striking out seven batters in a pitching clinic.

As the tournament progressed, one thing remained constant: West Chatham’s balanced play.

No matter the date, time or opponent, West Chatham made it a point to deliver both superb pitching and lights-out hitting, pummeling opponents with a near-perfect mixture of offense and defense.

“There were a couple of games where everybody in the lineup got at least one hit,” Garner said, praising his team’s offensive versatility. “Our bats were hot. Our pitching was on point. I was really proud of the girls.”

The All-Stars’ only true test came during the semifinals in a rematch with Moore County out of the losers’ bracket, where they trailed, 3-2, entering the top of the sixth inning.

“(Moore County) had thrown its best pitcher the night before just trying to win and get to that game, so their best pitcher wasn’t available against us,” Garner explained. “They came in and had a girl that was throwing really, really slow and it really threw us off a little bit. Even though our pitchers did their job, we just couldn’t hit that slow pitch.”

Moore County needed to collect just three more outs to enact its revenge on West Chatham, but after walking the inning’s first three batters and loading the bases, things only got worse.

Natalie Garner proceeded to rip a two-RBI liner to center field to nearly clear the bases, giving West Chatham a 4-3 advantage in the game’s final inning. Then, consecutive singles from Blair Hill, Nora Baxter and Aubrey Covington, followed by a stand-up double from Poe, broke the game wide open for the All-Stars.

By the time Moore County forced the third out, West Chatham was ahead by 5 runs, 8-3, having scored a whopping 6 runs in the sixth.

West Chatham’s Ella Parks closed the game out on the mound, striking out three batters between the fifth and sixth innings, sending her team to the title game with an improbable comeback victory.

“They stayed focused, they weren’t hanging their heads in the dugout and nobody was saying, ‘Hey, we’re down’ or ‘We’re going to lose.’ Nobody got upset,” Garner said. “They just continued to do their job and when the stars lined up, man, they were ready.”

From Carthage to Alexandria

In the championship game, West Chatham took on Pembroke, over which it’d earned its largest win of the tournament in the third round. As was the case with Moore County, Pembroke had “expired all of its pitching,” Garner said, in a come-from behind, extra-innings win over Lumberton to make its way into the title game.

Even though West Chatham lost the opening coin toss — which Garner called “the only thing we lost in the tournament” — making them the visiting team, the All-Stars still tore up Pembroke’s pitching from the get-go, scoring 8 runs on 9 hits in the top of the first inning.

Despite having to deal with a little bit of rain and a struggle with command, West Chatham’s pitchers were in bend--don’t-break mode. Over the first two innings, Natalie Garner amassed five strikeouts, but balanced it out with four walks and three hit batters, leading to just one earned run.

By the end of the fourth inning, West Chatham had taken a 14-2 lead over Pembroke as it controlled every facet of the game, triggering the mercy rule and securing the 2022 state title for the All-Stars.

“We didn’t talk about (winning the championship) a lot because we didn’t want to jinx ourselves,” Garner said, laughing. “We had a lot of girls that didn’t wash their jerseys the whole tournament because they were really worried about luck. … And some of these girls that won it last year (on the 10U team) are now back-to-back state champions. That’s a big feat in itself.”

Now, West Chatham will represent North Carolina as one of six teams still standing at the 2022 Dixie Youth Ponytails (12U) World Series in Louisiana, beginning on July 30.

Without much time to prepare, Garner said he feels confident that his team, coming off of such a strong showing in Carthage, has what it takes to make plenty of noise in Alexandria.

“We’ve got three practices to get ready and we’re just trying to stay as sharp as we can, you’re not really teaching them anything right now,” Garner said. “We don’t really know what kind of pitching we’re going to see down there — we didn’t really see a whole lot of overpowering pitching in the state — so you never know. … We just need our pitchers to stay sharp, just throw strikes, and need our girls to play error-free ball.

“The whole experience is going to be the whole deal,” he continued. “Whether we win, lose or draw, the experience is going to be something that even the ones last year haven’t seen. The infield’s all turf, the outfield’s all grass, so they won’t even be stepping on dirt.”

Reporter Victor Hensley can be reached at vhensley@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @Frezeal33.