JASPER, Tenn. - If they get an early run, they relax and play with confidence. If they score late, runs come in bunches.
That seems to be the pattern lately for Grace Academy's Lady Golden Eagles, who won their third consecutive Region 3-A high school softball championship by beating Marion County 8-1 on Wednesday.
Grace Academy (36-7-1) will host Gordonsville in Friday's state-sectional round. Marion County (33-8) will play at Lebanon against Friendship Christian, which beat Gordonsville 4-3 for the Region 4 title Wednesday. Both sectionals, where the winner moves on to next week's Spring Fling in Murfreesboro, are rematches from 2010.
Lady Golden Eagles coach Tina Walker said she thought taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning was a big key, although they did not take the lead for good until the fourth.
"When we get one or two runs in the first inning, we're not letting up anymore," Walker said. "Inning after inning we're building and putting more and more pressure on the opposition. It's perfect timing. We're hitting our highest point, and you want that right now."
Tina Walker's daughter Lacye Walker singled through the middle off pitcher Heather Richards to start the game and Lexie Dean followed with a single to left. They moved up on one of Heather Richards' five wild pitches and Walker scored when Kaitlyn Eldridge grounded out. Richards also walked six - two of which scored.
"It can be tough when you go on the road, and they have all their fans there cheering. You want to get out early," Coach Walker said. "I thought we did a good job picking out strikes and making Heather throw a few extra pitches. She's a good pitcher. I think that was a little frustrating to her."
The Lady Warriors had evened the game with a run in the third, although that proved to be the only inning in which they had more than one hit off winning pitcher Walker, who struck out six.
"We left way too many baserunners and didn't get the key hits we needed to," said Marion County coach Chris Thomas, whose team managed seven hits and drew four walks. "If we could've produced a few more runs, maybe we could've put a little pressure on them, but we weren't able to do that.
"We couldn't ever string anything together to make anything. That was kind of frustrating."
Dean finished 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs and Walker was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Eldridge's single and Reagan Schrader's double each drove in two runs in the sixth.
Taylor Brown was 2-for-4 - both doubles - and drove in Marion's run.