Rose Bud sophomore named Player of the Year

Rose Bud sophomore Joley Mitchell was named the 2017 Three Rivers Edition Player of the Year.  She batted .578 this season with 65 runs scored and 33 RBIs. She also had 13 home runs, 14 stolen bases and 27 walks.
Rose Bud sophomore Joley Mitchell was named the 2017 Three Rivers Edition Player of the Year. She batted .578 this season with 65 runs scored and 33 RBIs. She also had 13 home runs, 14 stolen bases and 27 walks.

— Just a sophomore, Joley Mitchell has already made quite an impression on the Rose Bud Lady Ramblers.

“She was our spark plug,” Rose Bud softball head coach Scotty Starkey said. “People would ask me, ‘Why in the world do you have her in the leadoff spot?’

“Because she hits for power, and she does so many things. But the way we look at it, we give her more at-bats at the top of the order.

“An extra at-bat in a game is huge when she does some of the things she does.”

Mitchell batted .578 this season with 65 runs scored and 33 RBIs. She also had 13 home runs, 14 stolen bases and 27 walks.

For her performance, Mitchell was named the Three Rivers Edition Softball Player of the Year.

“Being our leadoff hitter, if she got on base, we knew there was a good chance we were going to get a run,” Starkey said, “because she made things happen.”

Mitchell was named all-state both her freshman and sophomore years.

“I have played softball my whole life,” Mitchell said. “When I was in kindergarten, I had a few friends — who are actually on the team as well — they were playing, and I was the cheerleader.

“I wanted to be like them because they got to travel and go play.”

From that point on, she and her dad, Skip, started practicing all the time and have never stopped, she said.

“I have played on several different travel teams, including teams out of New Jersey, Texas and Chicago,” Mitchell said.

She plays third base and catches for Rose Bud, but Mitchell said she prefers the hot corner.

“I just like the infield,” she said. “I really do love catching, but there is something about third base.”

This season, the Lady Ramblers defeated Bald Knob in the Class 3A state softball championship at Bogle Park in Fayetteville.

It is the first state title for Rose Bud.

“Last year, we lost to [Bald Knob] in the state finals, and that was really hard because we had made it so far,” Mitchell said. “Bald Knob is a good team, and we ended up losing, and it was really sad.

“This year, it was a redemption.”

Mitchell had faith in her team,“because we were a better team than we were last year,” she said.

“All of us played [last year], and we have practiced more, and we have gained a few players,” she said. “This season meant so much to us because we needed to win the state finals.”

She said redemption was the theme for this year.

“We were more pumped in the dugout, especially near the end of the season,” she said. “That’s what really changed throughout the season and from last year.

“We never gave up, no matter what the score was.”

Rose Bud had fallen behind 4-1 in the state-championship game, but the team scored five unanswered runs to defeat Bald Knob 6-4, ending its three-year winning streak.

“That meant a whole lot,” Mitchell said. “Since I’ve been playing, we have lost to them seven times.

“The eighth time had to be it. That was the time to win.”

In 2016, the Lady Ramblers lost to Bald Knob 1-0 in the state finals.

“I think we were more focused and more determined,” Mitchell said. “We had way more energy.”

Mitchell said she felt like the second round of the tournament was the turning point for the team. Even though the Lady Ramblers defeated Smackover 12-1, Mitchell liked how her team never let up.

“They were a quality team, but we just came out and shut them down in the first inning,” she said. “Even though we were ahead early, we never quit.”

Mitchell has already committed to the University of Missouri, where she will major in either chemistry or biology, with plans to become a doctor.

“I have just always been interested in the body and how it works,” Mitchell said. “Anytime I go to the doctor, I just ask questions like, ‘How many years did you have to go to school?’ or ‘If you could do another field, which one would you do?’

“I always get different answers, and I am so interested in learning more about the human body.

“It is fun to help people who are in need.”

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

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