Drive to Win

The crowd sits dead silent in shock as Cedar Creek and Ouachita Christian meet in the second round of the Division IV Select softball playoffs Tuesday.

Allie Furr, the Lady Cougars’ leadoff hitter and starting shortstop, lies face down in foul territory next to first base after taking an awkward fall as she attempted to beat out a throw on a ground out.

It’s clear she’s in pain. In a matter of moments, head coach Julie Riser and Chip Furr, Allie’s father, rush to her side. Peyton Muse, due up after Allie in the Creek lineup, walks over next to the growing huddle and checks on her teammate.

Then, while everyone in the stands sits quietly, hoping and praying Allie would get up and the injury wouldn’t be as serious as the fall made it look, Muse and the group around Allie break the tension with collective laughter.

“She asked while she was lying on the ground, ‘Did the run score?’” Riser recalled after Tuesday’s 12-7 win over OCS. “That’s what she was focused on. She is just determined to win.”

After being helped off the field and cared for on the bench the rest of the game, Chip and Heather Furr took Allie to get an MRI the next day.

The diagnosis was a torn ACL – Allie’s senior and final season for Cedar Creek is cut short right as the Lady Cougars are on the cusp of going back to the state tournament for the first time since 2018.

“Determined” might be an understatement when it comes to Allie’s drive to win.

Talk to the people who know her best, and it becomes clear losing isn’t in Allie’s vocabulary, and it’s never an option for the speedy senior.

Her comment Tuesday was just another example.

“Just never satisfied,” Riser said. “If she’s not on base every time, she’s not satisfied. It seems unrealistic, but in her mind, that’s her goal, and for her to have that determination, never-give-up mentality is crazy to me. She kind of wills herself on base.”

Better than everyone

As a seventh grader, Allie Furr made Creek’s varsity team and initially expected to spend most of the season on the bench.

But after an expected senior starter in right field went down with an injury, Riser had to figure out who would fill the spot. Furr, along with a pair of upperclassmen, competed in practice for the job.

She won the spot, and it gave Riser the first indication this little seventh grader was far from average, and she wanted her coach and teammates to take notice.

“She’s just very determined; aggressive. Had all the tools, even from then,” Riser said. “She doesn’t like to lose, and so she kind of takes it personally so she’s going to fight for her position, fight to win.”

Chip remembers

“She just earned the spot in right and, let me say, she was small but always had an arm,” Chip said. “I remember there was a girl on second and she gets a ball hit to her in right and she rolls to her right and she turns and guns out the girl at home. I didn’t know she had the arm to throw her out like that, and it just felt like you won state. It was a great feeling. That solidified that she could play at this level.”

Furr started for the Lady Cougars from seventh grade on and broke out by shattering the school record for batting average in 2022 by hitting .615 with 29 RBIs and 3 home runs.

Before her senior season, she committed to Louisiana Tech to continue her softball career.

Before her season-ending injury this year, Furr was batting .505 (51- for- 101) with 27 RBIs and 3 home runs with only 5 strikeouts all season.

She had a 21-game on-base streak and an 18-game hitting streak at points in her senior season and went 2-for-3 against OCS in her lone playoff game this season.

“I just want to beat everyone at everything,” Furr said. “I want to be the best at what I do. I guess it’s just my nature. I don’t really know.”

The exact origin of Furr’s competitiveness doesn’t have an easy answer if you ask Allie, Riser, or Chip.

But having an older brother is a good place to start.

Allie and Kasten Furr, currently playing baseball for the University of New Orleans, constantly had competitive sibling battles growing up: who can beat each other in a race and practice rep battles, just to name a few.

“She’s always had that. She didn’t like to lose at anything growing up,” Chip said. “Still doesn’t.”

Before her season came to an end, Allie’s goals were perfectly clear. She wants the 2023 Lady Cougars to go out as champions.

“It probably comes from our first year — winning it all,” Allie Furr said. “That’s what I want to do. We had success that season, and I just want us to get back there and do that.”

Team leader

Josh Taylor, Tech’s head softball coach, was impressed with Allie’s ability to take direction to pair with a versatile skillset when he first saw her at a team camp in 2021.

When he got a chance to watch her in-game, her competitive trigger couldn’t be denied.

Taylor felt she’d be another key piece in his building of the Techsters program and extended an offer.

“ We’re always looking for winners, we’re looking for competitors,” Taylor said. “There tend to be easier adjustments made to this level when they’re really competitive.”

Riser has had competitive players come through the Creek program in the past, but what sets Allie apart is she wants it for her teammates and everyone to meet their potential.

When in- game frustration boils over, Allie said it’s never about trying to show up a team or umpire. Competitiveness can’t be watered down in the heat of the moment.

Take the 1-0 loss to St. Frederick on March 27.

Creek and the Warriors met with the District 2-1A title up for grabs, but both squads felt the effects of a less-than-stellar home plate strike zone.

The Lady Cougars were called out for a season-high 5 strikeouts looking, half of the team’s 10 total punchouts, and it left Riser and players visibly upset postgame.

“I know what this team is capable of, and when we get games like that taken away from us, it’s just really frustrating,” Allie Furr said, recalling the St. Fred loss. “We should have won that game. We just didn’t have that chance to.

“I hate to get out at all, so they (teammates) know I’m sure every time they see it. I’m sure they see it and want to be the same way.”

Allie’s unabashed feelings on the loss to St. Fred are right on the brand for the type of player Taylor saw on film and at the camp in 2021. He likes how the losses seem personal for her.

“A true competitor hates losing more than they like winning,” Taylor said. “She definitely fits that mold. And we have a few of those on our roster right now which is good, and she’ll fit in right with us.”

Riser’s eyes welled up talking about her starting shortstop – a player she’s coached since she was in sixth grade – and the legacy she’ll leave behind when the 2023 season comes to an end.

Beyond softball, Riser believes Allie Furr’s spirit will be a strength to whatever comes after her high school journey.

“I just cannot see her ever not being successful. Whatever she does,” Riser said. “As a team, if we don’t do things well, she gets frustrated. She knows what we’re capable of. She just likes to win. You can’t take that out of kids.”