PREP SOFTBALL | CLASS A STATE FINALS

It was bad enough that she had walked six of the first seven batters in a crucial conference game.

It was worse once her coach got to the circle, where South Central's struggling sophomore pitcher was waiting to hand the ball over and retire to the dugout in defeat.

"I found out he wasn't even going to take me out," Taylor Scarborough remembered.

Fast forward two years to last Saturday. It was the fifth inning of the Class A Caston Regional championship game, and the humidity was starting to take its toll.

Having pitched the Satellites past long-time nemesis Pioneer hours earlier, Scarborough was tiring fast, operating on pure adrenaline at this point. So when coach Bill Fryar caught up with Scarborough in between innings, he had but one question: "Could she continue?"

Fryar, of course, had no intention of taking her out this time either. He wasn't about to take the ball from his senior ace with his team just two innings from its first trip to the state finals. But he had to ask.

This time, though, Scarborough wasn't going anywhere. She wanted to stay in the game, despite the elements, the fatigue, the adversity of being tagged for several runs.

This time, she wanted to gut it out.

"Her stamina and what she contributed throughout the day was unbelievable -- especially at the plate," Fryar said.

Scarborough's line on Saturday: two wins, five hits, eight RBIs and one huge home run. Down 4-1 to Lakewood Park in the championship game, Scarborough tied the game with one swing, lifting a three-run homer to center field.

In the biggest game in her program's history, Scarborough played perhaps the most pivotal roll, showing how far she's come since her sophomore year, a time when she struggled with her control on the mound and her composure at the plate.

"I took a simple game and made it too hard," Scarborough said.

Much of it was mental, wanting to win so badly that she piled too much pressure on herself.

"I've always been kind of nervous and jumpy at the plate," Scarborough said, "and this year I've been more relaxed."

This year, Scarborough is hitting a career-best .372 while posting a team-best 1.75 ERA. This year, Fryar says, she really has come into her own as a pitcher and hitter.

During the regular season, Scarborough split time in the circle with Kayla Wallace and Olivia Pahl. But since sectionals started, Scarborough has logged every inning.

"She expects the ball and I give it to her," Fryar said. "She knows it's on her shoulders."

Scarborough still gets nervous at the beginning of big games -- like the one she'll be pitching tonight against Tecumseh -- but that usually subsides once she gets past the first batter. The memory of that fateful start her sophomore year, oddly enough, can also be therapeutic.

"I tell that to freshman pitchers: 'Look, you can't do any worse than I did my sophomore year,'" Scarborough said. "Nothing beats that game. I kind of use it as a joke now."