The Grind, presented by Bank of Clarendon: Ivey shines for Lady Gamecocks as they build on last year's lower state championship run - The Sumter Item

Sumter High's softball program is in the midst of the best five-year stretch in the history of the program. They ended a long playoff drought in 2022 and have been a mainstay in the SCHSL 5A playoffs ever since. Last year, they won their second district title in program history and played Summerville for the 5A-DI lower state championship.

There has been one constant in the middle of it all: Lillie Ivey.

The pitcher affectionately known as "Bug" made the leap to varsity softball as a seventh-grader and immediately proved to be one of the area's elite arms. Starting on varsity so young, she learned how to get outs without a dominant fastball. Instead, she uses devastating breaking and off-speed pitches to keep opponents off-balance. After an all-state season last spring, Lillie is already putting together another excellent campaign as a junior and she doesn't plan on slowing down anytime soon.

"Lillie is everything you want a pitcher to be," Sumter High head coach Mike Moss said. "She is poised, and she's been poised since she was a seventh-grader. She's not boastful, she just goes out there and gets the job done. That's the thing that I've enjoyed watching over the past five years, watching her grow and continuing to perfect her skillset. She's a tremendous young lady, she's very respectful. She's everything you want."

Lillie has never been the kind of kid who wants to wait around for something she wants. From the moment she picked up a softball bat as a 4-year-old, she knew she found an obsession that would take over the rest of her young life.

"I first did dance but that was kinda forced, and then as soon as I picked up that bat, I was like, 'Okay, peace out dance,'" Lillie joked. "I started playing softball and I have not stopped since."

It didn't take long for Lillie to give pitching a try. She took a lesson with her aunt, Sumter High assistant coach Courtney Moss and immediately caught the pitching bug and has been a mainstay in the circle ever since.

In those early days, Lillie embraced the challenge of playing against the older crowd, a decision that would serve her well as a middle-schooler pitching on varsity a few years down the line. As an 8-year-old, Lillie played for Phil Parnell's 9-10U teams, which often played up against 11U squads. He quickly realized the kind of special athlete he had on his hands.

"She's worked really hard to be the player and person she is," said the Director of Sumter County Recreation and Parks. "Lillie's been very coachable through the years, and she'd run through a brick wall for me. She's one of those kids who, if you had nine of them, you'd probably never quit coaching."

Lillie's toughness stood out at a young age. Phil still remembers a day when their team played a tournament in Hartsville and she took a nasty liner to the thigh.

"I went out there and we kinda walked around, talked a little bit and she got right back up and went back at it," he said. "She's always been tough, and she's never backed down. She'd always get up there and do the best she can."

As a youth player, Lillie learned to create almost an alter-ego in the circle. When Lillie is away from the diamond, she's rarely walking around without a smile on her face. When her foot touches that rubber, her focus shifts and the world around her disappears.

"We always tried to stress to her that, when you're in that circle, you don't show emotion," Phil said. "You don't let a team know they're getting to you."

Being the ace of a pitching staff can be stressful. Lillie literally stands in the middle of the diamond and is the only player who will touch the ball every single play, but she's never worried about the outside noise.

"I guess I didn't realize how much pressure it brings, but as I kept going, I guess the pressure never really hit me. It doesn't really bother me too too much. I guess working so hard and continuously pitching, it's never really affected me," Lillie said. "It's just me and the glove. I see Kenzi's sign and I'm like, 'That's what I gotta do.' It's kind of hard to explain, actually, because you hear all the cheers that they say all the time, trying to get in your head and all that; so, over the years, I've learned just to block it out."

As a young pitcher, Lillie proved that she was capable of competing against an older crowd, but she was still surprised when Mike told her she'd be playing varsity as a seventh-grader.

"The moment he told me in the press box, 'You are going to be pitching on varsity,' I was terrified. The thought crossed my mind that these are girls committed to colleges at like 18 years old and me, a little 12-year-old on the mound facing them, I was like, 'There's no way I'm gonna be able to do this,'" Lillie said. "Thanks to Coach Courtney, she was constantly like, 'You've got it, you've got it, you've got it. There's a reason you're here,' pushing me to be the best I could in that bullpen right there. I fully believe that is why I was able to do it. And, of course, the team behind me. With me being the youngest, they were more veteran players, so I think them constantly pushing me, telling me that I was okay and I was gonna be okay and trusting them, it definitely helped a lot too."

Lillie was more than okay. The seventh-grader was the Lady Gamecocks' top pitcher, tossing 65 2/3 innings to the tune of a 1.71 ERA, leading Sumter High to the postseason for the first time in more than a decade. Her first playoff matchup came against the No. 1 team in the state, Lexington, and she held the Wildcats to just five hits and two walks in a 6-0 loss. Only one of the runs she allowed was earned, as SHS committed five errors against the team that would eventually fall to Fort Mill two games to one in the SCHSL 5A state championship series.

"I can only imagine the thoughts going through her mind as a 13-year-old who has helped us get to the playoffs for the first time in 11 years at that point, and she was a big part of that in the circle," Courtney said. "Just the composure she had, she didn't let the effects of the big crowd or the rankings people would tell her about get to her."

In the moment, the matchup with Lexington was the most stressed Lillie has been in the circle. Looking back, she's able to see how much she was able to learn and grow from that experience as she's developed into an all-state pitcher.

"I mean you look at pictures when I was little I was petrified, especially playing Lexington in the playoffs. At beginning of seventh grade, I would never picture that at the end of seventh grade I would be pitching against a Louisville commit. It was terrifying," Bug said. "It was definitely a reality moment, but I would say it helped me tremendously because I knew exactly what to expect every single year and how to grow from every single year."

Growth is the key word for both Lillie and the Sumter High team around her. Every single season, the Lady Gamecocks have taken a step forward. After going 0-2 in the postseason in 2022, Lillie and the Lady Gamecocks got their first playoff win in a dramatic 1-0 win over Cane Bay in 2023. Lillie was immaculate, allowing just two hits while striking out six batters. SHS ran into a buzz saw against Summerville, the eventual state champions, but still earned a chance to play for a district championship with an 8-5 win in a rematch with Cane Bay. As a freshman, Sumter High had homefield advantage when they faced Chapin for the district title, but a bad first inning left Sumter High spiraling. They lost the opening game 8-1 as Lillie tossed 103 pitches in six innings. After a weather delay, they lost the nightcap 20-10.

"That one inning that hurt hard. Going in, we just gotta win one and then we're going to lower state, we can do it, we've played this yard, we can continue to do it," Lillie said. "Then that weather delay, I didn't know if I was pitching or not, so I was tapping my leg the whole time. I was like, 'Can this weather hurry up,' because I'm definitely a very nervous person, an anxious person, so sitting there I was like, 'I really hope we get to play this game.' And then my arm kind of just gave out and I wasn't able to pitch and sitting there I was, I was praying. I'm not gonna lie, I was praying a lot. I was like, 'God, they got the first game, please let us take the second game.'

"It didn't work out like it was supposed to, and I felt really bad because that was our senior Maddie Long's last game ever, so my heart really went out to her. But it motivated me a lot because I was like, 'We have next year, we're not losing very many (players), so we've just gotta work harder.' And then we made it past that point and that felt awesome because when we won that district championship, I immediately thought to the year passed and I was like, 'Well, we've gone up from there.'"

At the beginning of her freshman season, it would've been hard for Lillie to believe that she'd be able to throw 100 pitches in a district championship game. During the offseason, Lillie needed to have surgery on her shoulder. For the first time in her life, she had to sit on her hands while her friends were playing volleyball and gearing up for softball in the spring.

"I'm not gonna lie, it was miserable because I'm constantly on the go, go, go," Lillie said. "If I'm in my bed sometimes, I'm even just throwing like a squishy up in my bed before I go to bed. Not being able to do that was awful. I was also in the middle of volleyball season, so I had to sit there for a couple of games and watch people do another sport that I love."

Recovery was a slow process. Bug had to build her way up inch by inch.

"I got my surgery October of freshman year, and I was shut down, couldn't do anything," she said. "I started my protocol with my physical therapist, I think December, and every day I had to do specifically where I could only do wrist flicks one day, the next day I could throw using my elbow and slowly work my shoulder on that, and I think that was the longest month of my life because all I wanted to do was pick the ball up again and be back to normal."

As Lillie battled through the early stages of recovery, a natural fear started to sink in.

"I was actually terrified that I would never be able to pitch like I did before. Coming off of being the middle-schooler pitching on varsity and then now the freshman that may never be that again, it was really terrifying but it also motivated me a lot," Lillie said. "I worked my butt off to get back to where I was and thanks to my physical therapist and coach Courtney and Bailey Ardis, actually, she was my catcher through it all. We'd go in the gym on Saturdays when it was too cold and I'd throw in the gym."

Lillie was still on a strict pitch count early in the season, but she was able to throw more and more throughout the season.

"It was hard to see her go through it because of how much she loves the game and how much passion she has for pitching," Courtney said. "She wants to do what's best for the program and she wanted to be out there pitching as much as she could, but we had to tell her, 'No, we've hit our limit for the day. We'll pick it up tomorrow.' You could see that she would get a little frustrated but knew if we didn't follow it to a T that it would push her back a little bit further. As we got deeper into the season, she could see her strength and her spin get better and she started to settle in as the playoffs hit and it was lights out."

Mike added, "I've never seen a girl more determined to get back to the game than she was."

After a strong freshman season, Lillie went into the offseason healthy and ready to take her game to the next level. She didn't leave a lot of wiggle room in that regard, as she posted a 1.92 ERA over 62 innings as a freshman, but Bug elevated her game as a sophomore. Lillie tossed 115 2/3 innings last spring with an ERA of 1.69 with 140 strikeouts and just 27 walks. With her arm in the circle and an incredible offensive core, Sumter High went 22-8-1 and finally broke through for a district title.

"It was finally my first season back to normal, so I was able to push myself 10 times harder," Lillie said. "I got, I think, most of my pitches perfected at that point and my endurance was better, I was able to pitch more and then our team - we were good, I've gotta give it to us. In the beginning, I think we were a little nervous and then come region play, I don't wanna say we were unstoppable, but we were pretty unstoppable.

"I wouldn't say the dream team, but we were kind of close to the dream team that this program has had and it was just a result of how much all of our hard work has been put into it over the years and it's finally paid off."

Sumter High ripped off 10 consecutive wins to wrap up the regular season and open the SCHSL 5A-D1 postseason. Sumter High mowed through most of their district, beating James Island 12-2 before a 4-0 victory over Wando an a 10-0 win over Stratford, setting up a date with West Ashley for a district title. Sumter High struggled to find offense for most of the night, trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh when McKayla Mouradjian finished off a three-run inning with a walk-off RBI single.

"I was over the moon that we won," Lillie said of the district title. "Starting out in seventh grade, we didn't make it past the first round, really. Thinking back on how hard we all worked, because most of the squad we had last year was there my seventh-grade year, so each year we've grown all together. To know that we went out with a bang for all of those seniors last year. I couldn't ask for anything better, really."

Prior to last spring, Sumter High had exactly one district title in the history of their softball program, which came in 2007. There was one common denominator between the two teams. Courtney played for the Lady Gamecocks in 2007 and coached them to the same district title 18 years later and was overjoyed to watch her niece and the rest of the Lady Gamecocks feel the same joy she had as a player.

"Knowing that she's loved this sport since she was in elementary school and being able to be a part of that when she was a younger child, then seeing it all come full circle for her, as a coach, you want that for your program, you want that for your girls. Knowing what that felt like for me as a player and watching the girls experience that, it's hard to put into words what it means because you have so many emotions and everyone is excited," Courtney said. "It's like a dream come true. You want to play for a lower state championship and have the chance to compete for a state championship and that's what these girls want. Seeing the hard work they put in, and not just here, because it starts before they get to us, and we keep pushing them and adding more to their toolboxes."

Unfortunately for Sumter High, their fairytale season ended a week later against one of the state's most consistent programs, Summerville. The Lady Gamecocks gave the Green Wave everything they could handle in Game 1 on the road, as Lillie held Summerville to just five hits, but SHS couldn't get on base in a 3-0 loss and dropped the series two nights later with a 13-1 loss at home.

"We got blown out my eighth-grade year by them, so we wanted to play them because we knew last year's squad was a squad we may never get again. Summerville has always been good. Coach Courtney even talks about them from when she was playing," Bug said. "They're a squad everyone knows about. I think they were No. 2 in the nation last year. We wanted to see them, even if it was in regular district play; they're a team we wanted to beat. Even though it didn't come to the outcome we wanted it to, I was so proud of everybody. We played our absolute hearts out; nobody was going through to motions, everybody was there to play for the team and play to their full ability."

After another offseason of hard work, Lillie and the Lady Gamecocks will try to find the right recipe to get back to that lower state championship later this spring.

"I say to stay just as consistent," Lillie said of the key to repeating last year's success. "Obviously, we don't have the same group this year. I think we're trying to build our bond and last week, we really showed that we could and be just as good as we were last year, because I mean that's a lot to come from. I know all the new girls and the younger girls that are coming up, I know they probably have a big thing in their chest like, 'OMG, I have to go do this, this and that to be like this team last year.

"We may never be like that again, but I know that our whole team is capable of working that hard, and I fully believe we can be that again, and we can make it to lower state, if not more. You have to think about the other teams who also have new girls, who also lost a lot of girls, so if we stay consistent and be the team I know we can, I think we'll be just fine."

Lillie has been exceedingly successful despite not possessing an overwhelming fastball. When she came up as a seventh-grader, Lillie had to learn how to get outs with deception. She uses a mix of curveballs, screwballs, riseballs and changeups to make her fastball, which sits in the low 60s, look quicker by comparison and keep opposing hitters on their toes.

"In the beginning, I wasn't the fastest, so I was really scared that I have nothing. You see all these top girls, Karlyn Pickens from Tennessee, I mean she's throwing 79 miles per hour. I was like, 'I don't know what I'm gonna do because I don't throw hard enough. These girls are gonna hit tanks off me constantly.' I still don't throw the hardest, but I'm okay with my spin and I know I can trust it, and I know that it's okay not to throw the hardest," Lillie said. "I'm accurate and I do what I need to do, and I think it's shown that I'm a starting varsity pitcher, so I guess it's shown you don't need to throw the hardest. That's kind of the mindset that I have to have, especially after my surgery. I wasn't guaranteed to throw very hard afterwards either, so I knew that I've got to trust my spin and I've worked really, really, really hard on my spin, and I think that's what's gotten me through."

Location is key. Lillie can throw each of her pitches just about anywhere she wants to, both inside of the strike zone and out.

"With her curve and her screw, she's able to throw them in three different zones. For her to be able to throw her screwball and her riseballs in those different locations, it can be a weapon on the field," Courtney said. "She's throwing a lot of different things that teams aren't used to her throwing because she's now a junior and she's developed as a pitcher. She's stronger, not just her arm, but her legs. Her whole push off the mount is dynamic. Now that she's almost 17 years old, her spin is better than it was, so she just keeps building upon it every single year."

Throughout the regular season, Lillie and Courtney work side by side to develop her pitches. In the offseason, she teams up with Bill and Gracyn Royce to train. Courtney has worked to simulate game settings as much as possible in the bullpen, which has helped Bug translate their sessions to game situations.

"We'll go in the bullpen and she's like, 'You have an 0-2 count on a lefty, you have a 3-1 count on a righty, and you want her to do this, this and that,'" Lillie explained. "We're working counts, we're working spins, we're working multiple locations all the time. I imagine the batter when I'm there too, so when I'm on the mound, it's just like I'm in the bullpen."

While Lillie spends a ton of time on softball, it's far from her only activity. In the fall, she plays volleyball, which Courtney also coaches. Outside of sports, Bug in involved in everything from student government and the South Carolina High School League liaison program to playing violin for the Sumter High Orchestra.

"I don't know how she does it," Courtney said. "It's a lot for a 16-year-old, but you'll never hear her complain. You will only hear her say she wants to get better at it, while also making sure the people around her are taken care of. She always puts others over herself; she's just truly a great kid."

Lillie credits the adults around her for helping her find the best way to stay involved with everything she has on her plate, but her passion for all of her interest helps her power through.

"I have Coach Courtney for softball and volleyball, so luckily she's able to work around both those schedules and then I have an awesome orchestra director. He has kept in contact with Coach Courtney, so it's a lot easier on me that I just have amazing coaches and directors; they're able to help me out and plan stuff to where I don't have to stress myself out too much trying to plan on when I'm gonna do stuff," Lillie said. "But stuff on my outside time when it comes to practicing and it comes to bullpens and pitching lessons, I kind of just go with the flow through the week. That Sunday I plan my whole week out, and I go with that. If it's not on my piece of paper, I might be a little messed up, but thank the Lord for that paper because that's what gets me through it."

Bug also credits her mom, Nikki, for helping her juggle a very hectic schedule while also being a fervent supporter along the way.

"I've gotta give it to my mom. My mom is my biggest supporter through it all, and she does not forget a thing. She's also my calendar, my human calendar. She is constantly like, hey, you have a test tomorrow, you have practice tomorrow, you have pictures tomorrow. I don't know what I'd do without her," Bug said. "It's kind of funny because she never played the violin, she never did softball, she never did volleyball and so it's funny hearing her talk about some terms like, 'You have no clue what you're talking about,' but she knows I love it, and so she's trying her best to pick it up just as much as I have."

Despite that busy schedule, Lillie knows how to prioritize the task at hand, which has helped her thrive in everything she does.

"She's never off task, even though she has all of these other things going on," Mike said. "She has her hands in a lot of different things, but when she's on the softball field, she's always there mentally. Her mind can be a thousand different places, but when she locks in, she locks in. She's very determined and she gets the most out of her abilities, that's for sure."