Patriots Advance with two Shutouts in North Regional
Huntsville- The Bob Jones softball team is now one win away from a trip to Montgomery next weekend and a berth in the AHSAA Softball Championship Tournament. They will go for that win at 9:30 a.m. Saturday morning against Area 15 nemesis Austin at the Huntsville Sportsplex located on Jordan Lane.
To get to the semifinal in the North Regional the Lady Patriots had to beat 2 number one seeds from the Birmingham area. With Abby Guest in the pitching circle Bob Jones first dispatched Hewitt-Trussville 4-0. Later on Friday they faced Oxford and won 3-0 with Guest again pitching a complete game shutout.
Guest, a senior who has signed with Austin Peay, dominated the first game by allowing only two hits and not allowing any Hewitt-Trussville runner past second base. After about an hour break, Guest pitched another 7-inning shutout and allowed Oxford only 2 hits. She pitched out of several jams in that game.
Against Oxford she struck out a batter to end the first inning with two runners on base. In the fourth inning Oxford had a runner at third base with 1 out but Guest again pitched out of it.
“Abby was certainly on her best game today,” said Bob Jones head coach Kent Chambers. “We rested her this week and through the season we managed how much she pitched so she would be fresh for this. Oxford is a very good hitting team and she did a good job of keeping them off-balance. She used her curve ball and her riser and some changeups.”
Guest also succeeded in shutting down Oxford power hitter Ashley McClure, a senior who is a Wallace State signee. She hit two long fly balls but they stayed in the park. Oxford had hit 3 homeruns in a victory over Hazel Green in their first game of the day.
Guest got plenty of help from her defense as left-fielder Amy Carden caught a long fly ball at the fence that had home run distance. Sydney Booker had two put outs at third base and shortstop Brianna Sullivan also had two put outs.
Guest also helped herself at the plate by doubling in a run in the fourth inning. The hitting star in the second game was the leadoff batter Brianna Sullivan who went 3 for 3 and scored a run in the first inning. Amy Carden also had a hit and an RBI.
“At this point you just want to survive. Our goal today was to stay in the winner’s bracket,” Chambers said. “Everybody here is good and we got to beat them all to get to state.”
Combined with Guest’s pitching, shortstop Brianna Sullivan provided the spark for the offense for Bob Jones in the first game when she reached on an error and came around to score a run in the first inning. She also scored a first inning run in the second game.
Sullivan said the team wanted to play well after dropping two games to Austin in the area tournament to claim a runner up in the regional.
“Because we didn’t win our area tournament we were more pumped and it gives us more motivation to win the regional,” Sullivan. “We have played good teams all year so that paid off for us today and our hard work all season is paying off. We’re just playing ball and taking it one pitch, one play at a time. The whole team picked me up in the second game,” said Sullivan, a senior UAH signee.
In other games involving Madison County teams, Sparkman dropped their first game of the day to Grissom 7-2 but came back to stay alive with an 8-0 win over Clay-Chalkville. Sparkman plays Oxford in an elimination game at 9:30 Saturday morning.
The Senators, the top-ranked team in the state, will have to win 3 games to get to the semi-final which assures them a trip to the state tournament. Coach Dale Palmer said that he was confident they could do it.
Hazel Green had their season come to an end with a 1-0 loss to Hewitt-Trussville.
