Milligan College Buffaloes

Elizabethton Star
by Ben Davis

Milligan's softball team knew they faced a tough task heading into the final afternoon of the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday, needing to win three straight games if they were going to claim the post-season title.

In unbelievable dramatic fashion, the Lady Buffs did just that.

Over a span of seven hours and forty-two minutes that included 27 innings of play, Milligan beat Montreat College in a thirteen inning marathon and then took two games from Union College in the championship round to win the crown and make an already spectacular season even better.

"We told the girls, 'hey, you can do it, but you've got to come over here and you've got to have a lot of will-power'," Lady Buffs coach Wes Holly, whose team had already won the regular season championship, said of his team's achievement. "We're just tickled to death. It was a total team effort. The whole team did good today, so I am just very, very proud of them."

Pitcher Sidney Burns got the win in all three games for the Lady Buffs while Laken Stewart and Sarah Smith, among others, provided enough offensive fire-power to help Milligan carry all the momentum they could possibly have into this weeks Region XII tournament.

"We had it in our hearts and minds that we wanted to win," Smith said after the long day. "We knew what we needed to do, so we just had to tough it out."

"I've never seen us play so well," Stewart added after the final game. "If we play like this, we can beat anybody. We played unbelievable defense and Sidney threw a great game, and that's just how good we can be when we play our best."

Stewart was the hero for Milligan in the Montreat game.

The junior from Pennington Gap, Virginia, hit a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jessica Blevins in the bottom of the thirteenth inning to give Milligan a 2-1 win over Montreat and put the Lady Buffs in the championship round.

Stewart finished the contest 4-6 with three doubles.

"I was tired of playing them and I just wanted to get into the championship game," Stewart said smiling. "I would never have dreamed we would have went thirteen innings like that."

Smith had the hot hand at the plate in the championship games against Union, who had beaten top seeded Milligan 3-0 on Friday to put the Lady Buffs in the losers bracket of the tournament.

A senior from Elizabethton, Smith went 3-4 with an RBI single in Milligan's 3-1 win in the first game against Union. The Lady Buffs also got two runs when a ball by Stewart was misplayed allowing Smith and Holly Napier to scamper home.

In the Lady Buffs 7-0 route of the Lady Bulldogs in the second game of the championship round, Smith was unstoppable going 4-4 with three RBI and a run scored.

"Some of us have been in kind of a slump lately and other people have been picking up the slack which is good because we are a team and no one person can do it by themselves," Smith said. "In the end, we just kept getting good swings with our bats and we just really stayed focused on getting base hits."

Meanwhile, Burns was nearly untouchable on the mound.

After getting the victory against Montreat in relief, Burns went the distance in both of the championship games.

She allowed one run on six hits while striking out three batters and walking none in the first contest.

In the nightcap, Burns took a perfect game into the final inning, where she was charged with a hit after a controversial call on an infield single by Union's Ashley Tatman.

Burns allowed another hit to the next hitter as well, but it didn't matter. Her gutsy pitching performance throughout the day propelled the Lady Buffs to the tournament title, which was the most important thing.

"It was a little disappointing, but you know what, the ultimate goal was to win," Burns, who fanned three and walked none in the second game as well, joyfully said, adding that her teammates played a huge role in outstanding performance. "It was a team effort all the way. I hit my spots, we hit the ball and we had amazing defense. I haven't seen us play defense consistently like that like ever; the diving plays and the hype in the dugout was amazing. I couldn't have asked for any better."

Coach Holly expressed his admiration for the way Union, who will also be taking part in the regionals, performed in the conference tournament

"Union has got a good ball club," he said. "We split with them all year long. Everybody stepped up and contributed. We got the clutch hits when we needed them."

Milligan is now 36-17 overall. They went an impressive 14-2 in AAC action during the regular season.

"We've been on top all of the regular season and we just won the tournament, so we are in a good position going into the regional's," Smith noted. "The goal and result we want is to go the nationals."