Battle tested Good Hope wins 4A, Area 13 softball title:
Good Hope shows a comeback effort in the area title bout:
GDW Analysis:
GOOD HOPE: Things smoothed out for Good Hope softball Monday in a comeback triumph to win the AHSAA 4A, Area 13 championship at home.
The Lady Raiders were down to Danville 6 to 3 when they stepped to the plate in their half of the 4th.
Showing life with 10 runs in the inning on 6 hits, the Lady Raiders grabbed the lead and would take in onward by the final of 14 to 7.
In this area tournament, the No. 1 seed Lady Raiders had to use two comeback attempts vs. Danville with the win on Monday, getting them bound for the North Regional next week in Florence.
A key play in the frame was when Kylee Smith was hit by a pitch according to the home plate umpire. Danville coaches and fans protested the play with words being exchanged by adult fans on both sides.
Smith's HBP loaded the bases with no outs. A sac fly by Campbell Koch scored Maggie O'Neal.
Haley Lay walked to get the bases loaded once more. Molly Benefield singled home Lizzy Steed and Smith to tie the game at 6 to 6.
Natalie Miller then followed and crushed a pitch over the fence in right center for a 3 run play to make it 9 to 6 Lady Raiders.
Good Hope sent 14 to the plate in the inning.
Steed produced another run by a sac fly, Smtih doubled in a run and a fly ball by Koch was dropped for an error scoring two.
The Lady Raiders had the momentum as they would move to the 5th, ahead 13 to 6.
Benefield showed a lot of grit in her job pitching for Tim Tucker. The sophomore was hit by a line drive that turned out to be the final out of the 4th via a 1/4/3 play.
Benefield then shut down the Danville batters in order from the 5th and 6th.
In the 7th, she gave up a single then hit and another base hit allowed Danville to get a run and close to 14 to 7.
Her 2nd out in the inning was a strikeout and a line drive caught at 3rd ended the game at 6:45 p.m.
The title bout was played in 2 hours, 7 minutes.
Danville got to the championship round by knocking off West Morgan 6 to 2 in the early afternoon.
With the game tied at 2 to 2 in the 7th, Danville took advantage of 2 West Morgan errors as they went 2 & 0 against their county rival during the two day event.
Gameday Weekly All Performance team:
Selected based on performance Monday in the 4A, Area 13 tournament.
Most outstanding player:
Natalie Miller of Good Hope: Miller was 3 for 3 with a 3 run homer, RBI double. She drove in 4 runs and scored 3 times, hitting 6th in the lineup.
Good Hope: Molly Benefield, Kylee Smith.
Danville: Isabella Guest, Ellie Tucker, Kirstyn Robinson.
West Morgan: Chasity Rikard, Payson Terry.
Photo of Good Hope's 3B Natalie Miller, the Gameday Weekly player of the championship game.
GDW photo by Johnny Thornton.
