WEST STANLY EDGES SOUTH GRANVILLE 4-3
TO CAPTURE NCHSAA STATE 2-A SOFTBALL
RALEIGH— Walker Barbee’s hit up the middle drove home two runs in the bottom of the sixth to lift West Stanly to a 4-3 decision over South Granville on Saturday in game two of the series to clinch the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 2-A softball championship at Walnut Creek Softball Complex.
South Granville had scored single runs in each of the first three innings before the Colts got two in the fourth and then grabbed the lead for good in the sixth. Barbee’s hit was only the second hit of the game for West Stanly.
Savannah Blalock of West Stanly was named the championship series Most Valuable Player. In the opener on Friday night, Blalock pitched a complete game and had two hits to help West Stanly snap an 18-game South Granville winning streak by a score of 8-5, and she went the distance again on Saturday, yielding just four hits.
Freshman Savannah Tilley of South Granville had a triple and double in three trips to the plate for the Vikings. Jenna Davis was the losing pitcher.
The victorious Colts, making their first trip to the finals since 2003, finished the season at 28-4. West Stanly had faced South Granville before in the championship, losing in the finals in both 1996 and ’98.
South Granville, a perennial softball power over the years but back in the championship for the first time since 2002, ended the year 24-3.
