The Midwest Astros 04 did not get off to a great start in last week’s U.S. Fastpitch Association Grand Slam World Series in Panama City Beach, Florida.
But after losing that first game 3-1 to Warriors Elite 16U from Alabama, the Astros reeled off six consecutive wins, including the last two against that Warriors Elite team to capture the championship.
“We don’t tend to start very hot,” Astros coach Ben Taylor said. “As tournaments go on, once we get that first game or first couple games behind us, everybody kind of settles down and figures out what they need to do. Those last couple games, our pitching was phenomenal.”
Taylor, who coaches at Edinburgh, has been coaching the Astros for seven years. The team features four players from Columbus North — incoming seniors Peri Foust and Lexi Heafner and incoming juniors Kirsten Danford and Maryn Mayes — as well as incoming Edinburgh sophomore Kyah Streeval.
Foust’s father Tom Foust is one of the assistant coaches.
Peri Foust, who has been with Taylor and the Astros all seven years, was one of the team’s main pitchers in the tournament. She had a 0.74 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 19 innings.
“I thought it was a really good experience because nobody really knows who our organization is,” she said. “It was sort of like the underdog rising up. We have a name out for ourselves, but it’s not as big as it really could be, and I think winning the World Series will really help with that.”
The pitching load was a change for Foust, a Mount St. Joseph recruit who missed part of the high school season because of COVID and was behind Bull Dogs ace Maddi Rutan. Foust pitched three complete games and closed in and closed two others in the World Series.
“It was kind of hard at first since I barely got to play this season,” Foust said. “But once I got into the groove, it was good. I was hitting spots, and I was up into the 60s this week.”
Heafner batted .500 in the seven games. She knocked in the go-ahead run and scored and scored on a hit by Streeval in extra innings of a 2-1 win against Warriors Elite in the next-to-last game.
Foust pitched five-hitter with no earned runs and seven strikeouts, and Heafner went 2 for 3 in that game.
“It was very exciting,” Heafner said. “It was very stressful, but exciting.”
Danford batted .462 for the tournament. She singled and scored in championship game, a 4-2 victory against Warriors Elite.
“That’s always my goal when I go up there,” Danford said. “I’d been struggling a little bit hitting, but I got into it and just went up there swinging.”
Danford, Streeval and Mayes shared the catching duties. Mayes hit .357 for tournament.
Streeval played most of the spring with the Indiana Shockwaves travel team, and Taylor picked her up for final three tournaments of summer, including the World Series.
This was Mayes’ fifth year with Taylor and the Astros, Heafner’s fourth year and Danford’s second year. The team won a state title in 2015 and finished third in USSSA nationals in 2017 before breaking through with the title this season.
“It was amazing,” Danford said. “It was kind of a surprise, but at the same time not, because there were only 10 teams in our age group and we saw the other teams warm up. We got on a roll, and we thought, ‘We have a good shot at winning this.’ We just kind of kept going once we got on a roll.”
The championship also came as a little bit of a surprise to Heafner.
“In all honesty, I really didn’t think that we were going to (win),” Heafner said. “I thought we were going to do good, but I didn’t think we were going to do that good. It was basically just to go down there and have fun as a team, and we had a great outcome.”
