Staff Photo by Dan Henry GPS second baseman Tory Lewis misses a tag at second on St. Benedict at Auburndale's Melissa Bryant, 10, during second inning of the 2009 TSSAA BlueCross Spring Fling at MTSU in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Friday.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — St. Benedict at Auburndale made an early uprising stand throughout the rest of the game and forced a second championship game today.

The Lady Eagles defeated GPS 4-3 Friday night in the first finals game in the Division II-AA high school softball state tournament at Starplex No. 3.

GPS (24-7) and St. Benedict (32-14) will settle the championship at noon EDT.

The Lady Eagles led 4-0 after the top of the second inning with the key hit being pitcher Kristen Sturdivant’s two-run double.

“We had a good first inning to start with,” GPS coach Susan Crownover said. “The second inning we just couldn’t do anything right. We didn’t take advantage of an out they were trying to give us. We misplayed a fly ball that cost us two runs. We did a pretty good job the whole rest of the game.”

With plenty of help from her defense, Sturdivant made the advantage hold up. St. Benedict coach Christy Bingham said she was only thinking of getting GPS batters out as they came up from that point.

“They’ve got a great offense,” Bingham said of the Bruisers. “I just don’t think too far ahead.”

Whitney Hammond and Jackie Baird hit run-scoring singles in the third that helped slice into the deficit. Baird added another RBI single in the fifth.

Megan Givens followed Baird’s hit by drawing a walk, which loaded the bases with one out. Payton Leech then hit a sharp line drive that the Lady Eagles turned into a double play.

“That double play was great,” Bingham said. “That helped give us the momentum.”

The Lady Eagles turned another line drive into a double play in the fourth and threw a runner out at home on a close play in the third.

GPS beat St. Benedict 7-2 on Thursday.

“What happened was they made the plays defensively that we made against them the other night,” Crownover said. “They’re a scrappy team and they wanted to win awfully bad. I don’t question whether we want to win. I question our execution.”

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