Oakdale's softball season comes to an end at Rosepine

 Oakdale’s softball season comes to an end at Rosepine
After winning its first round playoff game at French Settlement on four consecutive bunt attempts in the top of the ninth inning, Oakdale’s softball team tried the same approach against the number one seeded Rosepine team it had faced twice earlier this season. But the end result for Oakdale was a 7-0 loss on the road ending its season.
 “I was trying to do something to change it up”, head coach Alycia McDaniel said. “We’ve seen Rosepine two other times, so I bunted. And the people that I’ve asked to lay down the bunt they did, but when you’re playing a team at that caliber they have great bunt coverage.”
 “It was rough considering the fact that we lost; however, if it wasn’t as rough if you look at the positives”, she continued. “Ending our season we had played Rosepine twice previously because they were in our district. The first time we played them it was 14-1; the second time we played them it was 15-0. nobody thought that we would make that game last seven innings and give Rosepine, the number one team in the state, a run for their money.”
 McDaniel appreciates her team’s efforts getting to this point and the progression that her players have overcoming some early season adversity. “We came a long way,” she said. “When I took the team on, they had only won one game prior to that. So I look at it as a stepping stone. Last year we made the playoffs, this year we made regionals, next year I hope we can go to State. We had a little bit of setbacks with injuries and some unfortunate circumstances with other players that we lost, but overall I will say that I’m very proud my girls.”
 The coach acknowledged the contributions of her two seniors Darien Phillips and Skylar Chambley. “I’m very sad that I will be losing two outstanding,” she said. “I will have some big shoes that will need to be filled for both of them.”
 Also acknowledged for her hard work and progression was pitcher Breanna Hargrove. “I will commend Brie, my pitcher,” McDaniel said. “She did an outstanding job in our first playoff game. Last season she walked quite a few people and didn’t have the consistency that she had this year, but she worked hard. didn’t give up. She turned around a complete 180.”
 McDaniel went on to recognize the rest of her team’s efforts and progression. “A lot of them had attitudes and really didn’t want to be out there, and we molded and watched them grow into better players and people individually,” she said. “We had to go and take people from different positions that they were not used to and put them in places that we needed so that we could physically win as a team. And I’m very proud of the girls that adapted to the position that I’ve put them in and went full throttle with it.”
“I take the positive out of it instead of the negative,” she said. “We did try a lot of different things. I hope that Rosepine goes on and takes the State title home so that we can say we lost in the playoffs to the State champions.”