Trenholm Little League

News Detail

26

Nov, 2024

Legends of Trenholm Series 2015 SC State LL CPSB Champs, The Lady Warriors

Welcome to our second installment of the “Legends of Trenholm” series. This is on the 2015 Trenholm Lady Warriors, the 2015 South Carolina Coach Pitch Softball Champions and the first state champion team in the history of Trenholm Little League Softball.

In 2011, Trenholm Little League started their softball program. It was and still is the only youth league softball program in Columbia, South Carolina and certainly the only Little League Softball Program. The TLL softball program has significantly helped grow softball in Columbia and the program has been a feeder for several high school softball programs such as AC Flora, Dreher, Blythewood, Hammond, Heathwood Hall and other high schools.

In 2014, only three years into the program, Trenholm Little League’s Coach Pitch Softball All Star Team won the South Carolina District 3 Championship, their first championship in softball program history, as they defeated Irmo Little League. They would fall short of winning the South Carolina State Championship in 2014. But 2014 would be the impetus for what would occur in 2015.

In 2015, the Trenholm Little League Coach Pitch Softball All Star Team, the Lady Warriors were determined to win it all. A team of 13 girls from five different coach pitch softball regular season teams. A number of them were 2014 all-stars who returned in 2015, along with a number of coaches from the 2014 team including head coach Randi Mattox and assistant coach Samantha Ingram.

But as Randi noted in a Cola Daily article from June 2015 about the state champs, there were a number of new faces. “It was so amazing,” she said. “We actually had four girls on the team that this was their first season of playing softball. That was very exciting for them.”

Byron Gipson, now the Solicitor for the Fifth Circuit, and Rick Gault were the other two all-star coaches. Rick was the coach pitch pitcher. I remember Rick as being the best coach pitch softball pitcher around.

First was the South Carolina Little League District 3 Championship Best 2 of 3 Series at Irmo Little League at Friarsgate Park. The Coach Pitch District 3 Softball Championship Series went to a deciding third game. The Lady Warriors won the first game on Friday night 19-17. The Irmo All Stars responded with a walk off win on Saturday, winning 19-18 in the bottom of the sixth inning. On Sunday, Trenholm won the deciding third game 15-7.

It was the second year in a row that Trenholm won the SC Little League District 3 Coach Pitch Softball Championship. It also happened on the same weekend that the Trenholm Blue All Star Team won the SC Little League District 3 Coach Pitch Baseball Championship, which was also at Friarsgate Park. That was also the second straight SC LL District 3 Coach Pitch Baseball Championship for Trenholm Little League as well.

Trenholm then hosted the South Carolina State Little League Coach Pitch Softball Championship at Trenholm Park the weekend of June 19. There were three teams in the state tournament. The Northwood Blue Angels, Irmo, though they had lost the District Championship to the Lady Warriors, had also qualified for the state tournament and the TLL Lady Warriors. It would be a “banner” weekend for the TLL Lady Warriors.

The TLL Lady Warriors and the Northwood Blue Angels reached Sunday’s championship game based on team pool play on Saturday. The Lady Warriors won both their games on Saturday, defeating the Blue Angels 16-10 and the Irmo Little League Coaches Pitch All Stars 15-5. Northwood would defeat Irmo to set up Championship Game Sunday.

In the top of the first inning, Northwood got a leadoff double and two batters later, an RBI single. However, thanks to a nice play by the Lady Warriors outfielder, the Blue Angels' third batter was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double. The Blue Angels would only score one run in the top of the first inning.

The Lady Warriors responded with a huge rally in the bottom of the first inning, as their first eight batters got hits, scoring seven runs. The Lady Warriors took a 7-1 lead after one inning.

In the top of the second inning, the Blue Angels put together a rally, scoring one run and had the bases loaded with two outs and their leadoff hitter up. But a nice catch by the Lady Warriors shortstop, Avery Ingram, ended the inning.

In the bottom of the second inning, the Lady Warriors plated a run on a solo home run by Gabby Cook and threatened to score more runs. But some nice defensive work by the Blue Angels, including a nice catch by their left fielder, kept it to one run only. After two innings, the Lady Warriors led 8-2.

In the top of the third inning, the Blue Angels started chipping at the lead. The Blue Angels scored three runs to cut the deficit to two, 8-5.

The Lady Warriors responded with two quick runs in the bottom of the third and had the bases loaded with two outs. But another nice play by the Blue Angels' shortstop, who had four putouts on the day, kept the Lady Warriors from scoring any more. The Lady Warriors led 10-5 after three innings.

In the fourth inning, the Blue Angels and the Lady Warriors traded runs. After four innings, the Lady Warriors remained up by five runs, 11-6.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Blue Angels started flying around the bases (yes, that was a dad joke pun). They scored four runs in the top of the fifth and cut the deficit to one run, 11-10.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, with two outs and no one on base, the Lady Warriors put together a little rally and scratched out a run to take a 12-10 lead heading to the top of the sixth and final inning.

The Blue Angels responded by scoring two runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game at twelve. We headed to the bottom of the sixth inning with the Lady Warriors needing one run for the championship.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Lady Warriors' Regan Yelton and Ashley Knowles each led off the inning with a single. Two outs later, the Lady Warriors still had runners on first and second. Kendall Gipson followed with an infield hit to load the bases. That brought up Ella Jankowski. Ella came through with an infield hit, scoring Ashley Knowles from third to win the game for the Lady Warriors!

The Trenholm Lady Warriors would win the South Carolina Little League State Coaches Pitch Championship 13-12! It was the first State Softball Championship in the history of Trenholm Little League, ironic considering it was the twenty fifth anniversary of Trenholm Little League in 2015.

I asked Assistant Coach Samantha Ingram what she remembered the most about that All Star season ten years later. “The championship game. The moment we won. There were practices every day in 100 degree Columbia jungle heat. They showed up. For them to put in that amount of work, to win a championship, I hope that’s something they will always remember.”

Randi Mattox told me this past weekend. “It was a great team. The girls worked extremely hard.”

Samantha noted she was the third base coach and that she had a chat with her runner on third. “Ashley Knowles was on third base. I remember looking at Ashley and said ‘Ashley, when that ball comes off the bat, no matter where it goes. I need you to run like you have never run before’.’”

Samantha continued, “That’s because I had confidence in our batter Ella Jankowski. I knew the ball was going to be put in play. Ashley ran and scored the winning run.” The picture of Ashley about to step on home plate with umpire Scott Padgett about to make the safe call was taken by my much better half Michelle Bosco Moore.

When I told Randi what Samantha had said to Ashley, Randi laughed. Then Randi noted to me that was the fastest she had ever seen Ashley run in the entire all-star season.

Samantha would add “All that hard work came down to two inches (see the picture of Ashley scoring) as we earned and deserved rightfully. All the hard work came into fruition. To bring a state banner and win at home is everything. Just honored to be on the field when it happened.”

Kris Mattox, Randi’s husband and the President of Trenholm Little League in 2015, who was quoted in the Cola Daily article stating after the game “I tell you what, it’s one of the most exciting things I’ve had in my lifetime other than my kids being born,” he said. “It’s kind of unparalleled to watch something that you’ve seen…we’ve only had softball at Trenholm for four years. Last year was our first district championship that we got, and to come to this year and win the state championship on our home turf … to get it right there, you can just imagine of how proud you are of that.”

Kris further said the players were equally as excited for the win, and he said they were proud their hard work paid off. “They were some kind of ecstatic!”

A number of the players from that 2015 team are playing high school softball. Aubrey Todd and Kendall Gipson play for Dreher, as does Anna Price McCormack. Gabby Cook plays at Blythewood. A couple of the players are now playing college softball or are committed to play college softball. Taegan Watts who played on the Lady Warriors, now plays at USC Sumter. Avery Ingram, who was named to the All State Region IV A team at Airport High School this past spring recently committed to Newberry College to play softball. The entire team is listed in the next paragraph.

Trenholm Lady Warriors Roster - Aubrey Todd, Gracen Roper, Regan Yelton, Sarah Bobertz, Kendall Gipson, Ryann Johnson, Gabby Cook, Ashley Knowles, Ellen McInnis, Ella Jankowski, Avery Ingram, Teagan Watts and Anna Price McCormack.

Coaches – Head Coach Randi Mattox, Assistant Coaches – Samantha Ingram, Byron Gipson and Rick Gault.
Newspaper articles that were cited in this article.

https://www.thecolumbiastar.com/articles/lady-warriors-win-state-title-for-trenholm-little-league/

https://www.coladaily.com/sports/trenholm-little-league-softball-team-makes-history-with-championship-win/article_de77593b-0386-59f5-ab0b-267f4c6b3186.html

Hope you enjoyed our second “Legends of Trenholm” story. Our next “Legends of Trenholm” story will be about the 2018 SC LL District 3 Minors Baseball Champions, Trenholm Blue. It’s a story of a true underdog team that took down the mighty Irmo Gold during District 3 Pool Play on their way to the championship, due in large part to perhaps the greatest defensive play to ever end a Little League playoff game. The team then followed that District 3 win with two wins in the SC State LL Minors Baseball Championship Tournament.

Have a great Thanksgiving and go Trenholm Little League!

Click here for the Facebook post on the 2015 Lady Warriors.