The win for Kinston is their second-straight softball crown and their third in program history.
OXFORD, Ala. - Just a little over a full year after raising their last Blue Map in Oxford, the Kinston Bulldogs softball team once again were able to call themselves 1A State Champions after a dominant display on Thursday morning at Choccolocco Park.
Much like last season, the matchup on display in the state title matchup was between the Bulldogs and the Hackleburg Panthers. But unlike last year, it was Kinston who came in with the advantage after sweeping through three games in the Winner’s Bracket on Tuesday to advance to the title game, while the top ranked Panthers had to grind through five games across Tuesday and Wednesday to advance to the championship after an unexpected upset to Ider in the Winner’s Bracket semifinals sent them to the Elimination Bracket and into must-win mode the rest of the way.
The dust would settle though for a rematch of last year’s 1A title clash, as would the weather that delayed the inevitable matchup from its planned Wednesday night spot to Thursday morning, and in the end it was the Bulldogs standing tall with just one game needed over their Marion County foes, taking home the 8-0 win and the trophy.
The bulk of the scoring for Kinston came in the bottom of the second inning, with Lilli Sumblin’s two-run double bringing in Lauren Norris and Bella Lashley to flash up the first numbers on the scoreboard, and that would be followed by Madisyn Jones’ perfectly placed bunt bringing in Sumblin moments later and Adalyn Whigham bringing in Aubrey Norris with a two-out single in the inning to make it 4-0 through the first two innings.
Lauren Norris and Sumblin would get the credit on another pair of RBIs in the bottom of the fifth inning off of a single and some miscommunication by the Hackleburg defense respectively to make it 6-0, and a pair of insurance runs would would also come in the following inning with Lauren Norris’ RBI triple and Brynne Kelley’s single afterwards to make bring it to where the score would stay to the final.
Not only was it near perfect play offensively for the Bulldogs, but defensively it was much of the same, with only two hits being allowed by Kinston through seven innings of play and plenty of thanks to Sumblin in the circle who pitched a complete game while recording seven strikeouts. As mentioned, the win for Kinston is their second-straight softball crown and their third in program history.
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