It would suit Virginia Lady Titans coach Ken Adams if the National Softball Association held its A Division Eastern World Series in Chattanooga every year.
Coached by Kelly Robinette, the Lady Titans won the NSA World Series in 16-under in Chattanooga two years ago with seven on the team who could’ve played in 14-under. Saturday, Adams guided many of those same players and a few others to another 16-under championship. The clincher was a 3-1 victory over the Indy Diamond Chix at the Summit of Softball complex.
The Lady Titans were 7-0 in the 2009 tournament and 8-0 this year.
“Chattanooga is our lucky town,” Adams said. “That’s for sure.”
The Lady Titans fell behind on Amanda Banitt’s RBI single before they had a chance to bat in the final, but they overtook the Chix later with a run on an error after Calyn Adams’ RBI single had tied it.
After a near-three-hour rain delay, the second batter in the bottom of the fifth inning was the Lady Titans’ Jamie Barbour. She lined a triple, and winning pitcher Taylor Thorpe then got her in with a groundout.
“That was huge,” Adams said. “That gave us an extra run margin.”
The Diamond Chix got the tying runner on base in the seventh when Kelsey Marlow, who had singled and scored their run in the first, was hit by a pitch with one out after Allie Burkhart led off with a single. But a force play and a line out ended it.
• 14-under: At Frost Stadium, Huntsville (Ala.) Sparks ’96 pitcher Faith Sims overcame a rough outing in the first game of the final and ran into some trouble in the fifth and final inning in the championship game. She worked her way out of it with two defensive plays of her own — one starting a double play — and the Sparks beat Velocity Gulf Coast 5-2. The team from Mississippi forced the second game by first winning 11-2 in five innings.
Sims was perfect through four innings in the last game and ended up with a one-hitter. She also walked four and hit one in the final inning.
“She pitched really well all week,” Sparks coach Matt Lewter said. “She got us to where we’re at. She was kind of tired and struggled in that first game, so we decided to pull her and rest her. There at the end we figured we’d stay with her. Her pitching got us here. We’ve got 11 girls and all of them contributed. We hit all week, but without our pitching we wouldn’t be here.”
Kaitlyn Caldwell was 3-for-4 in the two games and had an RBI single in the second game along with teammates Bri Caldwell and Kelly Campbell, who singled in the Sparks’ runs in the first game. Lindsey Lewter contributed a bases-loaded walk in the win.
Simone McKinney went 3-for-3 and scored twice and Hailey Lunderman was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored when Velocity won. Ashton Lampton had a two-RBI single and a run-scoring groundout. Peyton Montgomery, who along with Carly Crawford had the RBIs in the loss, also had a two-run single.
• 12-under: At Frost Stadium, the Ohio Classic forced a second championship game after edging Michigan’s Compuware 12-11. After moving to Warner Park’s Field No. 5, Compuware bounced back and earned the title by winning 6-4.
• 10-under: At Frost Stadium, North Carolina’s Alexander Blue won the championship with a 6-3 victory over an area team, the Georgia Raiders.