Macon Middle School softball are conference champions.
After an undefeated season in the Blue Ridge Athletic Conference last year, this year’s team entered 2023 with high expectations. With their second-straight BRAC title under first-year head coach Sarah Carpenter, the Panthers proved they’re still the class of the conference.
“I work in the school system, so I got the email about the vacancy, and as soon as I saw it I jumped right on it,” said Carpenter, a staffer at South Macon Elementary. “I got a hold of [MMS athletic director Zach Tallent], and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m very interested in this job. Can we meet some time to talk about it?’ He said, ‘Of course,’ so we met up and got to talking about it, and two weeks later they called me to let me know that I had the job.”
As a Franklin native and MMS softball alumna, the opportunity to coach her former team was too good to pass up for Carpenter. After being named to the role Oct. 25, the new head coach gathered her team for their first pre-season workouts, and was immediately struck by the talent on this year’s team.
“I knew from the very first practice we had that we had a very special group of girls, and that we had the ability to take it all home,” she said.
With a full preseason of work under their belts, the team kicked off their regular schedule as a true contender in the conference. In an early-season trip to Rugby Middle School in Hendersonville however, the team was dealt an unfortunate setback.
“Honestly, it was just a long bus ride, and I think we just got off the bus very tired,” said Carpenter of the trip to the West Henderson feeder school. “I knew we weren’t ourselves, and we just weren’t the same group of girls that I had seen in the previous game, and even after. … At Rugby, they don’t have lights, so I think that if it hadn’t been getting dark and we had one more inning, I think we would have had them. They called the game a little bit early and we probably could’ve played for another 30 minutes, but when the home team is winning and you ain’t got lights, they’re gonna call it.”
Despite the early-season setback at Rugby, the Panthers rolled on, making quick work of nearly every other team on their schedule. By the end of the regular season, the loss remained the only blemish on their record, and Macon entered the BRAC tournament with a full head of steam.
“Polk, we shut them down and run-ruled them,” said Carpenter of the first-round game versus Polk. “Pisgah has probably been our [biggest competitor] in the conference; they have a great group of girls. It’s funny – the first time it was 0-4, the second time it was 8-4, and then in the tournament it was four again, so that number four just kept repeating itself. It was kind of one of those strange things that happened. Pisgah’s got a great group of girls, but we ended up taking it home.”
After defeating Pisgah in the conference semis, Macon advanced to the BRAC Championship game against Rugby. Far from being intimidated however, Carpenter said the team relished the opportunity.
“Honestly, all season long since we had lost to Rugby, I was hoping that we would play them again,” she said. “Just to prove that our girls were better, we put in more work, and to come and prove to them that we were not the team that they played the first time. … I told the girls in the locker room that Rugby believed that they could beat us, but we weren’t the same girls then as we are now. We put in the hard work, the everyday struggles, and we were just better.”
On Thursday, May 11, the Panthers welcomed Rugby to MMS for their last game of the season, while Panther baseball played Rugby in their own BRAC title game just feet away on McConnell Field. The game stayed quiet through the first few innings, as Macon held the Raider offense in check with strong defense from shortstop Kyelynn Hervey and third baseman Layla Maloy.
Macon’s offense finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth, turning a walk from pitcher Suzanna Cabe, a bunt single from catcher Kamden Reis (her second of the game) and a Rugby fielding error into the game’s first run. The Panthers kept the line moving from there, getting two walks, two wild pitches, two steals, two singles and a Maloy triple to take a commanding 6-0 lead.
The Raiders responded in the top of the fifth, leading off the inning with a walk and a double. Standing on third, Rugby’s lead runner eventually came home on a wild pitch, but Cabe struck out the final batter to limit the damage.
The Panther offense stayed hot in the bottom of the inning, getting a leadoff single from Reis, a bunt single from Hervey, and a walk from left fielder Cameron Mason. With the bases loaded, Reis scored on a sacrifice fly from right fielder Alyssa Awtrey.
Maloy continued her excellent hitting day in the sixth, belting her second triple in as many at-bats and scoring on a Cabe single moments later.
With Macon up 8-1, a new pitcher took the mound for Rugby, but the change made little difference. After moving to second on a wild pitch, Cabe advanced to third on a single by Reis, then scored on a Rugby error to make it 9-1.
On the next at-bat, second baseman Chloe Lambert singled for Franklin’s fourth-straight hit, then moved to second on Rugby’s second-straight error. Lambert then scored herself on a single by Hervey, putting her team up 11-1 and ending the game on the spot by way of the 10-run mercy rule.
“I think a little bit of excitement, and a little bit of shock,” said Carpenter of her team’s reaction to the BRAC title. “There was a lot of pressure for them and I coming off of last year’s season. I think that [former MMS skipper Missy McConnell] is a great coach, and it’s hard to step in and fill those shoes, for me and for them. So, they were very excited, but also like, ‘Hey, we did the unthinkable two years in a row.”