For the first time in Columbia Academy softball history, the Lady Cougars are state champs. CA swept Tri-County Academy in two games, winning the decisive Game 2 in Flora 4-3 Saturday to hoist the trophy.
One thing became clear once the postseason began — the Columbia Academy Lady Cougars were a team of destiny. After placing third in their district, very few could have predicted they were the team to beat in all of Class 3A, but that’s exactly what played out. Throughout the South State and State tournaments, as well as the State Championship series, the Lady Cougars were unquestionably the best team in the state.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” junior pitcher and first baseman Macey Branch said after winning state. “We’ve been working our tails off since we were 8 for this moment, and it’s finally paying off. It’s surreal to be a state champ with everybody that I’ve played with since I was 8.”
“This group of girls, they’re like my best friends,” senior Harley Herring said. “We’ve been working towards this for six, seven years and we finally reached our goal in my senior year, I’m so proud of the whole team.”
“We’ve been working for it for a while — every day — I’m just glad we finished it,” senior Molly Sistrunk said. “It’s been a rough year for parts of it, but we finally got it done.”
“I just don’t even have any words honestly,” Maggie Smith said. “I’m just really proud of (everyone). We talked about this at the beginning of the year; this was our goal and we accomplished it.”
Head coach Kyle Wilks was emotional after the game and fought through the emotions to express his pride in the Lady Cougars.
“This is special. We’ve been on the grind for a long time and to finally see it come together is unbelievable,” he said. “It was truly a group effort, and that’s what you want. I’m so proud of them.”
For coach Wilks and assistant coach Lyle Berard, the win was extra special as they got to share it with their daughters — Macie Wilks and Taylor Berards — CA’s starting third baseman and shortstop, respectively.
“It means everything,” Berard said. “I see all the work that she puts in every day — early mornings, late nights — and I think what I'm most proud of is that whenever she walks between those lines, she’s going to give it everything that she has. There ain’t going to be nothing to stand in her way, and that’s all I’ve ever asked her.”
“Me having girls got me into the softball scene and getting the opportunity to coach them at school has been fun,” Wilks said. “Finally being able to put it together with Macie involved in the team has been a lot of fun. This is a group effort for sure with everyone out there involved.”
In Game 2 Saturday, the Lady Rebels jumped on CA with a three-run first inning that could have been more if it wasn’t for the arm of centerfielder Carlee Pounds. On an RBI single, Pounds threw out the second runner trying to score for the third out, limiting the damage to just three runs.
Trailing by three runs entering the third inning, the Lady Cougars offense awoke from its slumber thanks to an error and a walk. With runners on first and second, Taylor Berard singled to cut the deficit to 3-1. Then Lola Todd and Kate Fortenberry singled back-to-back to tie the game at 3-3 before the Lady Cougars added the decisive fourth run on an error.
Todd retired the last six batters she faced as she threw three innings before handing the ball off to Branch. The junior, who has been pitching with the varsity team since she was a fifth grader, did what she has done all year — get outs.
In the bottom of fourth inning, she retired the Lady Rebels in order with a line out, ground out and popup. In the fifth, she induced two infield popups and a flyout to center. In the sixth, she walked the first batter but got an assist from her battery mate, Lizzy Todd, who caught the runner trying to steal second. She struck out the next batter then forced a soft grounder to herself for the third out. Then, with the game and the state title on the line in the seventh, it was business as usual — groundout, groundout, groundout — to win it all.
“I was asking to get the ball that last inning. I was ready for it,” Branch said. “I knew my team had my back in that moment, and I knew we were going to pull it out because my defense works so hard behind me. I couldn’t do it without them.”
Branch’s words were certainly true as there were several standout defensive plays along the way on top of the throws by Carlee Pounds and Lizzy Todd. In the fifth, Berard ranged from her shortstop position to the fence down the left-field line and went headfirst into the fence and fencepost but managed to hold on for the out. For the second out in the seventh, Macie Wilks made an incredible stop at third base and threw a bullet to first base. While the final out was a routine grounder to Berard, there’s nothing routine about the state championship hanging in the balance, but the Lady Cougars knew she would get the job done.
“I was already taking my mask off and throwing my glove in the air, just ready to dogpile, because I had a lot of confidence in her that she was going to give me everything she had to make that play,” Branch said.
“I had all the confidence in the world in Taylor,” Smith said. “She got the last out at South State, too. I was already out the dugout before she threw the ball.”
“It went silent across the crowd,” assistant coach Todd Pounds said about the moment Berard’s throw landed in Lola Todd’s glove at first base. “That was the best moment because then it erupted.”
With masks and gloves flying through the air in triumph, the Lady Cougars dogpiled on top of Branch in the pitcher’s circle.
“I was on the bottom, so I got everybody on top of me. I lost my earrings, but it was it was the best moment ever,” Branch said while laughing. “That dogpile is what we’ve been working for this whole year — since we were 8. It’s the best feeling ever. That moment will live with me for the rest of my life. I don’t know if next season can top it, but I hope we do it again.”
While the Lady Cougars had all the confidence in the world, coach Pounds was on pins and needles.
“It doesn't seem real yet. That may be the most nerve-wracking game we have played all season. It was just so intense,” he said.
The Lady Cougars produced 11 hits in the game — all singles — with Lola Todd leading the way with four hits, a run scored and an RBI. Branch earned the win in the circle, allowing just one hit in four shutout innings.
In Game 1 Oct. 8 at The Yards, Tri-County similarly pounced first, scoring runs in the fourth and fifth innings, while Columbia Academy didn’t score until the bottom of the fifth inning as they left runners stranded in three consecutive innings. But when the dam finally broke, it flooded the scoreboard in CA’s favor.
Lizzy Todd and Brooklyn Ladd led off the inning with walks before Carlee Pounds loaded the bases with a single. The Lady Rebels seemed like they were going to get out of the bases-loaded, no-out jam as Lizzy Todd was thrown out at home on a groundball and Lola Todd popped out. But with two outs, Fortenberry drew a four-pitch walk to score a run then Sistrunk roped a single to center field to score two runs and give CA a 3-2 lead. Following a Macie Wilks to load the bases again, Branch ripped a single into left field to plate two more runs and extend CA’s lead to 5-2.
Branch drew the start in the circle and earned the win, allowing two runs — one earned — on seven hits while fanning three. Lola Todd earned the save, firing two shutout innings to win the game 5-2, which set up Saturday’s Game 2.
What was so impressive about CA’s postseason run was all the different ways it won games, whether it was the offense exploding for 10-plus runs or the pitching and defense stepping up while the offense only scored a few runs. Wilks said that he believed the offense was going to be the strong suit for the Lady Cougars, but that changed throughout the season.
“We talked at the beginning of the season about scoring 10 runs a game. I knew we had pitching depth and knew what we were going to get out of our pitchers,” he explained. “They don't throw for a lot of velocity, so we don't strike out a lot of kids. Then the way the season evolved, we were winning a lot of 3-2 games, 4-3 games, 5-3 games. I can't say enough about our pitching. We had a lot of good depth throughout the year, but Macey and Lola did the bulk of the pitching, especially down the stretch.
“Macey went 6-1 in the postseason, Lola went 2-0 in the postseason and Macey had a sub-one ERA. Then defensively, we played really well this year. You come into the season expecting maybe having some big offensive numbers as far as runs scored and when it all worked itself out, we were winning a lot of 5-3 ball games with really good pitching. I think that says a lot about those pitchers. They matured a lot over the year. They worked hard and got stronger. They worked individually with lessons and different things, and they did a phenomenal job.”
Wilks added that in both softball and baseball, everyone gets caught up in the analytics about how hard a pitcher throws or exit velocity for a hitter, but being able to locate and change speeds means so much more for a pitcher than anything else.
“They just miss barrels,” Wilks said. "People get caught up in the numbers, but if you can locate and change speeds, you can win and it does not matter if you're throwing 40, 50 or 60 miles an hour. … The thing that you cannot measure is how much heart somebody plays with. That is this team in a nutshell. They're going to give you everything they've got. They're not the biggest, not the strongest, not the fastest, they don't throw the hardest, but they're going to compete for seven innings and it doesn't matter who you're playing. They're going to show up ready to go and I just can't say enough about them and how proud I am of them as a group.”
With only three seniors graduating and a loaded junior class, Columbia Academy is likely to enter 2026 as the favorites to win next year’s state title.
“I like our chances,” Pounds said.
