MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Maryville's 2025 season ended here Friday evening in an 8-0 loss to ninth-ranked Huntingdon. Earlier in the day, the Scots eliminated Piedmont 3-2 and clinched third place in the tournament to match their regular-season third-place finish.
Maryville in three seasons under head coach Jill Moore is 10-4 in the CCS Tournament despite never being seeded better than third.
This year's team finishes 23-20 after winning 16 of its last 21 games. The Scots rallied for a regular season third-place league finish at 10-6. They then backed that up with hard-fought wins in the tournament over LaGrange 4-3, Asbury 7-4 and Piedmont 3-2 to leave no doubt about their place in the conference despite losing nine graduated seniors off last year's NCAA regional finalist squad.
"If you saw us in February, we've come a really long way," Moore said. "This group could have easily admitted defeat and given up, but behind the leadership of our three seniors, they decided to fight. They worked hard at practice, came out every day determined to get better, and showed this weekend how far this team has come and how special this group really is.
"We were picked third in the preseason, and even though our goals were set higher to win the championship, we did what we were supposed to do. We are very evenly matched with Piedmont, and that was a grind. That was an intense game."
Third Round-Tripper
Brecca Williams led off against Piedmont with her third home run of the season. Williams in the tournament's five games batted .571 (8-for-14) to raise her season average to a sizzling .559. That ranks second in the country, as does her career-high 76 hits. Over her four years, the Maryville product tallied 225 hits and a .412 batting average.
"When seniors are playing for their last game and just want to play more, it escalates the environment you're playing in," Moore said. "Brecca set the tone when she hit that home run. She was going to play more softball, and I knew that from the get-go."
The Scots then took advantage of a two-out Lions throwing error in the fifth to score a big pair of insurance runs for a 3-1 lead.
Piedmont narrowed the lead in the sixth, but Tia Williams made the three runs stand with a complete-game pitching effort. Williams (8-5) scattered eight hits for her eighth victory of the season. The righthander walked two and allowed just one earned run in her team-leading fourth complete game.
Williams went 3-for-4 while Paige Dickinson, Sydney Dickinson, Jessica Harris and Ashtyn Barga each contributed one hit. Maryville's two base hits against Huntingdon went to Catie Zani and Sydney Dickinson.
Maryville has won its last eight meetings against Piedmont.
Seniors Had Challenging Task
Moore had plenty more praise for her three seniors as a unit, Williams, Campbell White and Sarah Phelps.
"I'm just really proud of them," Moore said. "Sarah, Campbell and Brecca left the program better than when they found it, and as a graduating senior from any sports program, that's everybody's biggest goal. To know you put it out there and you're leaving your program better than you found it – that's pretty special. Those three definitely did that for us and we will miss them very much.
"They knew they had a challenging task at hand when you have more underclass team members than upperclass. You know you're going to have more work to do because they don't know what's expected in the program and our seniors led with their heads held high through the really hard times. We didn't start off great and they just kept doing the right thing, and that says a lot about the program that they're a part of."
Maryville as a team batted .258 in the tournament but held their five opponents to a 3.28 earned-run average, which was well below the regular season's 4.78.
"Our pitching was outstanding," Moore said. "Our pitchers have worked tirelessly in the bullpen on getting outs for us their way, and they stepped up and were able to win three big games for us. Even Tia Stewart against Belhaven gave up just two earned runs. She had a great outing against them and then came back and pitched even better against Piedmont.
"And Jacey Goetzinger, just a freshman, we started her in Game 1 and she was out there in the circle with no postseason collegiate experience. Our staff stepped up and had a great weekend, regardless of the outcome of the last game. They got better, and it was very evident throughout the year."
