“We knew this team was different”: Veterans heads to Columbus with chance for first state championship and program record in single-season wins

Whether it was over the summer or early in the season, Veterans softball’s seniors knew this team was different.

Teams can be good, they can win a lot of games, but not all of them have the “it” factor.

Is it playing with swag? Performing well in clutch time? Whatever “it” might be, it was clear after the Lady Warhawks’ comeback against Northside-Columbus they had “it.”

Down 7-0 they scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh and Braylin Horton stole home in the eighth to seal their win and remain undefeated.

Backed into any corner Veterans can fight their way out, and that’s gotten them to Columbus for the second time in four years and first time under head coach Jeff Sans. They also sit at 27 wins before the tournament, a tie for the program record.

“In my opinion, I think it actually came pretty early in the season when we won that game against Northside-Columbus by one run,” Senior infielder Hailey Maloney said on when the season started to feel “different”. “We came back from a seven-run deficit. I think it really just showed our team coming together and in that moment, I knew we were going to be a really good team. Even before region and everything, in that moment when our bottom of our lineup, our younger girls came out to help us win, it really just showed that we were here to win this year.”

For some, like senior outfielder Rayven Hodridge, that realization came before the season even started.

“Over the summer we all kind of realized that our mindset had shifted. Like, we knew this team was different,” Hodridge said. “This team was stronger than before. Everybody came back ready to work with a goal. Especially those first couple games when we proved to ourselves that we are as good as people say we are.”

“I think we’re still kind of learning that now, and we sometimes don’t realize our great potential, but knowing that people believe in us and we just had to put faith in ourselves really changed how the season was going to turn out for us.”

That mindset shift, as Hodridge mentioned, came in the form of self-belief.

Veterans was plenty successful last year. A 20-11 record and second-place finish in the region is a season many softball programs would be thankful for.

They had the makings of a great team, but little inconsistencies picked them apart at the end of the season.

This year the Lady Warhawks won nine games before losing their first. Sometimes a 10-1 knocking like the one against Coffee is enough to derail confidence, but Veterans used it as fuel.

“Going back to practice and doing the little things when we did lose to Coffee, we realized we can’t lay down when things don’t go our way,” Senior infielder Katelyn Haines said. “Going back to practice and making sure all the little things are done right and just working together, and making sure we’re playing small ball and getting everybody over, and just working as a team.”

Senior middle infielder Rizzy White knew that a loss was inevitable. Softball is a game of streaks. You, or your opponent, can go hot or cold at a moments notice.

“With all the wins we had we knew at some point, we hoped not, but we were going to lose,” White said. “Using that loss as another motivation to keep building on our team and our chemistry on the field, as well as our skills to being able to win as much as we have.”

The Lady ‘Hawks won seven more games before their series against Houston County. They put up double-digit runs in four of those games and never scored less than seven. Consistently putting up those kind of numbers is not easy, but keeping your head up and focused on the next goal is how Veterans accomplished it, according to Hodridge.

“I think just dedicating ourselves in practice every day,” Hodridge said. “We had an end goal of making it to state this year, so of course, not having tunnel vision on a loss, being able to put that to the side and go back to practice the next day knowing we have a goal of winning.”

They kept it up as they approached the series against HoCo, which is always a big game because of the region implications. But it’s also big because of the proximity and familiarity with the girls on the other team.

Maintaining a business-like mentality in that series was a must for the Lady ‘Hawks, and their seniors accomplished that heading into Game 1. Maloney knew that the Lady Bears would have to adopt the same mentality, and Veterans believed that they were the better team.

“Really it was just like, you’re the better team you have to show it,” Maloney said. “A lot of people are gonna be there. It’s always gonna be a big game. But whoever decides in that day that they’re going to be the ones to come out on top is who’s going to come out on top.”

“I think it was just to play our game. HoCo is no different than any other team we face in the region,” Hodridge said on the team’s mindset. “Just because we’re so close, we know the girls, it may get a little personal, but other than that I think we’re all out there with the same goal to win and to come away with the W. So at the end of the day, that makes them no different than any other opponent we faced.”

Veterans walked off Game 1, coming back in the seventh as they do for a 4-3 victory. But the Lady Bears held them back in the last two games, taking the series and eventually the region championship with 4-1 and 3-2 wins.

The next week, and the first game after the series, Sans said their focus switched to the state championship. Many girls had that goal in mind from the start.

“We’ve had the goal since the beginning of the season to make it to the Elite Eight, and now we realized our potential that we have,” Haines said. “And it’s not just about [the] Elite Eight now it’s about a state championship. It doesn’t matter if you’re the [number] one in the region all the time, a two seed can do just as good as a one seed. So at the end of the day, the seeding and region doesn’t matter [at the state championship].”

It was also easier for some, like White, to move right past the HoCo series and on to the next goal.

“The day we got off the field after losing the HoCo series we all knew that we still were within reach of getting to the Elite Eight and making it to state,” White said. “Of course a region championship would have been nice, but we still had other, bigger goals that can definitely be attained. Our next goal is winning state, and that’s what we intend to do.”

For others it can be a little harder brush off a rivalry loss. That didn’t stop them from moving forward, though.

“After the series it was a little hard, because that took a while, but pretty much by the next practice we were ready to go and ready to just look at what the next step was,” Maloney said. “There was no reason holding us back with that loss because it happened, you can’t really do anything about it. So the whole team pretty quickly just switched our mindset and it really brought us here.”

Veterans won their final region series against Northside for a second place finish, guaranteeing a home series, and ended the regular season 3-1 over non-region opponents.

With the playoffs at their doorstep, The Lady ‘Hawks’ seniors had their chance to get back to Columbus after a two-year hiatus.

“Freshman year I feel like a lot of us, the four seniors, took it for granted [going to Columbus]. We went to the Elite Eight and were just like, ‘Oh we’re at the Elite Eight,’” Haines said. “But now we’ve realized we do truly have the potential to go somewhere…not just to prove it to everybody else, but we need to prove it to ourselves.”

After a very straightforward round one win against River Ridge by scores of 4-2 and 7-3, Veterans headed up to Douglasville for a round two date with Alexander. The Lady Cougars were the region 5-5A champion, and had a 26-4 record entering the series.

The Lady ‘Hawks blitzed Alexander in an 11-1 Game 1 victory, scoring six and five runs in the fourth and fifth innings respectively.

They scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh of Game 2, but fell 7-6 before taking the series and advancing to Columbus with a 10-0 win that only took five innings in Game 3.

Not getting tunnel vision on the region championship loss to HoCo got Veterans this far. Believing in themselves, and for Hodridge, wanting more from their season has the Lady ‘Hawks in a position to win the school’s first softball championship.

“I think once you get away from the fact that a region championship isn’t the end of the season, losing that wasn’t the end all be all for us,” Hodridge said. “We had a bigger goal to make it to state and to go win a state championship. And being a two seed going into that doesn’t change our goal. We weren’t tunnel vision on winning only a region championship and being content.”

“I think for me personally it was just knowing that I wasn’t done. There was more to accomplish in my season as a senior. So just not being apprehensive about what I wanted and how I wanted my season to end.”

The Lady ‘Hawks leave for Columbus this week, playing their first game on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. at the time of writing, weather permitting.

Congratulations to Veterans for making it this far, and go make all of us in Houston County proud in Columbus!

Find the GHSA 5A tournament bracket here.