SW Randolph captures NCHSAA 3-A softball championship
June 7, 2009 North Carolina
RALEIGH - Freshman Brooke Hayes had four hits and sophomore Kelsey Hoover drove home a couple of runs to help lift Southwestern Randolph to a 5-2 triumph over Asheville T.C. Roberson in the title game of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 3-A softball championships on Saturday at Walnut Creek Softball Complex.
Senior pitcher Anna Maness was named Most Valuable Player of the championship as she earned all three pitching victories for Southwestern, striking out six and scattering five hits in the final.
Maness fanned 14 in the opener Friday night as Southwestern beat Roberson 4-1 and also helped her cause offensively with a couple of hits. Then in the winner¹s bracket final Maness struck out seven and scattered five hits in a 4-1 triumph over Pikeville C.B. Aycock.
In the title game, Southwestern struck for three runs in the first and made them stand, with Hoover¹s two-run single in the first a key blow.
Roberson got on the board in the second on a solo home run by Brooke McDonald, who was also the losing pitcher, and then scored a run in the third to cut the margin to 3-2. But the Lady Cougars got RBI singles from Olivia Hunt and Hannah Hughes in the third to push the advantage to 5-2.
Sophomore Taylor Goode had two hits for Roberson, which finished 30-4 overall. Olivia Hickman also had a couple of hits for Southwestern, which ended the season 30-1 and earned its third NCHSAA softball title in the last six years. The Lady Cougars are a young team with only three seniors on the roster.
Earlier in the day in the loser¹s bracket final, T.C. Roberson banged out 14 hits and outlasted Aycock 9-7. Kaitlin Ramsay rapped out three hits and drove in two for Roberson while Ashley Ellis, Ashley Green and Amanda Cope had two hits apiece for the winners.
Brooke Bell had a big game for Aycock with three hits in four trips to the plate and four runs batted in, and Torie Benton had three hits. The Golden Falcons got down 4-0 and kept battling back but couldn¹t overtake Roberson. Aycock was eliminated from the tournament with a 26-4 record.
The Raleigh Sports Consortium and the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau are among the host city sponsors for the championships.
NORTH CAROLINA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
2009 STATE 3-A SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
WALNUT CREEK SOFTBALL COMPLEX, RALEIGH
FRIDAY¹S RESULTS
STATE SEMIFINALS
Pikeville Charles B. Aycock 4, Erwin Triton 1
Southwestern Randolph 4, Asheville T.C. Roberson 1
WINNER¹S BRACKET FINAL
Southwestern Randolph 4, C.B. Aycock 1
ELIMINATION GAME
T.C. Roberson 6, Triton 0
LOSER¹S BRACKET FINAL
T.C. Roberson 9, C.B. Aycock 7
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Southwestern Randolph 5, T.C. Roberson 2 |
NATIONAL
NORTH CAROLINA
