Mya Holt walked to the plate in the most important at-bat of her high school career.
With Wetumpka trailing by one run, Holt looked over to Saraland’s dugout as she thought she was going to be intentionally walked. When she wasn’t, she stepped into the batter’s box with two outs and Bailey Carlisle standing on second base, representing the game-tying run.
The first pitch Holt saw was a ball. The second was an inside pitch that she watched for strike one.
The third pitch still hasn’t landed.
Holt connected with the 1-1 and sent a rocket over the fence in left-center field. Not even three steps out of the box and Holt already had her finger in the air pointing at the ball as her father, Steven Holt, screamed “Ballgame! Ballgame! Ballgame!” from behind the net at home plate.
The Wetumpka softball team raced to home plate to celebrate, and the Indians clinched their ticket to the AHSAA Class 6A State Tournament with a 7-6 win over Saraland in the second regional qualifying game in the South bracket.
“I knew it was going out instantly,” Holt said. “I did a little point at it. She was trying to go back inside on me after I watched that pitch the last time. I threw my hands out at it. I told myself up there that I was winning the game or keeping it going. It wasn’t ending right there.”
Holt and the Indians (47-5) didn’t have an easy route to making it back to the state tournament in Oxford. They lost their second game of the tournament on Monday, a 2-1 loss to eventual regional champion Baldwin County.
Following that loss, Wetumpka entered Tuesday needing to win three-consecutive games to keep its season alive. That started with a game against area opponent Benjamin Russell.
And for the fifth time this season, Wetumpka sent the Wildcats home packing with a 13-3 mercy rule win. The Indians pounded out 14 hits and took advantage of six Ben Russell errors in the win.
In Game 2, Wetumpka had to face a red-hot Pike Road team that had just knocked off Spanish Fort. Ella Watson hit a grand slam to break the game open, Lily Davenport hit a double and a triple and the Indians held off a four-run comeback attempt in the final three innings.
That set up a final game with Saraland. In the game, Wetumpka jumped ahead 5-0 before slowly losing that lead, 6-5, in the fifth inning.
Holt’s walk off then gave the Indians their ticket to state.
“The girls fought all day long,” Wetumpka coach Daryl Otwell said. “Ben Russell has always been a thorn for us and that was a tough game because we had to bounce back from a loss. Then we had to face a good Pike Road team and after a long day, you get a Top 10, 40-win Saraland team with a chance to go to state. It came down to one pitch.”
In the Saraland game, Wetumpka scored its first five runs all in the first two innings. The Indians were then held scoreless from the third to the seventh inning. During that span, Saraland scored two runs in the fourth and then four in the fifth inning, which came off four singles and two infield errors.
As the outs dwindled down, Otwell just wanted one of his superstars to get a chance. For that to happen, one batter needed to get on in the seventh inning.
After the first batter struck out, Autumn Hollon pinch-hit for Carlisle with one out. She hit the first pitch she saw to the shortstop.
The hard-hit ball was too much to handle and Hollon ended up safe at first. Carlisle then re-entered the game to run bases and stole second. After a pop up resulted in the second out, Holt and Watson were due up.
Otwell was confident in either player, as Watson already had four hits including a grand slam, and Holt had two doubles and is the reigning Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year.
Instead of intentionally walking Holt like Otwell expected, Saraland pitched to her and quickly learned from its mistake.
“We had a 5-0 lead in this game and it dwindled down,” Otwell said. “We just couldn’t catch a break there for a while and I was just telling myself ‘Please get Mya Holt or Ella Watson another chance.’ I really thought she would walk Mya, but I’m sure glad she didn’t now.”
