Sparkman and Bob Jones win their way to championship game in tournament
Madison- Picture perfect weather greeted hundreds of high school softballplayers, coaches, family, and friends as 54 teams from across the local area and as far away as Kentucky came to Madison for the Bob Jones/ Huntsville Hospital Softball Tournament. Teams played late into the night Friday and started early Saturday to try to win their way to the championship game to be held at Bob Jones Softball Field.
Saturday, two sites were hosting teams which were seeded after pool play on Friday. At Palmer Park in Madison the park was buzzing with activity early Saturday morning as the first games got underway at 9:30 a.m.
Among local teams at Palmer were East Limestone, Athens, Lawrence County, Decatur and Bob Jones. Pelham and Hoover were also in the field at Palmer.
Playing at the Huntsville Sportsplex were local teams Sparkman and Hartselle. One of the early game upsets was Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa, ranked 2nd in the state of Alabama, who fell to Assumption of Kentucky. Sparkman later defeated Assumption 7-6 to win that bracket and go to the championship game. The Senators are ranked 4th, right behind Bob Jones.
“The competition here is very good this year,” said Bob Jones softball coach Kent Chambers.
“There are a lot of teams here that have got a chance to win the state championship.”
“Whatever I did to order the weather, I need to keep doing,” Chambers added. “The teams just want to play. They’re excited that we have got sunny weather for two days. Win or lose, they just want to play.”
The Bob Jones Lady Patriots had an amazing Saturday winning 5 games to advance to the championship game. The day started with a 6-3 win over West Morgan, then a 10-2 win over Curry and 9-3 win over Lawrence County. Annabelle Smith went the distance pitching and got the win against Curry. At the plate the Patriots pounded the ball despite seeing some good pitchers. Allie Stocking had a 2-run double against Curry and Alyssa Worden had 2 hits and an RBI. Brianna Sullivan singled and used some nifty base running to score when caught in a rundown between third and home.
“”We want the best competition we can get, it makes us better in the long run,” Chambers said. “It’s going to get tougher as we go. So far our pitchers have done really well.”
Angela Jolliffe got a win in the early game Saturday against West Morgan. Abby Guess got a win on Friday against Auburn and again Saturday afternoon against Lawrence County in a game that Bob Jones’ Rebekah Duvall hit a home run.
“We’re doing a good job of hitting the ball and running the bases, making the defense make some mistakes with aggressive base running,” Chambers added.
Bob Jones defeated Hoover and Athens in late games. Meanwhile Sparkman advanced in a tough 7-6 win over Assumption of Kentucky to set up an all Madison County final.
Sparkman won the championship game 5-0.
