Tournament winners
- Updated: March 13, 2021
Patterson pitches PV to White Plains Invitational crown, blanks Cleburne County in title game
By East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD – Pleasant Valley capped a strong week of pitching and defense Saturday when Leah Patterson pitched the Lady Raiders to a 1-0 victory over Cleburne County to win the White Plains Wildcat Classic at Oxford Lake.
The Lady Raiders went 7-0 during the week with five shutouts.
“Which is just overwhelming when I think about it,” PV coach David Bryant said. “Our pitching and defense have been terrific all week.”
The Lady Raiders (13-3) were 3-0 Saturday with Patterson picking up all three wins in the circle. In 13 innings on the day she gave up no runs, two hits and struck out 21. She gave up no hits in a 17-2 rout of Woodland, one hit in a 4-0 semifinal shutout of Handley, and one hit to Cleburne County.
She’s now 10-1 on the season.
“They didn’t have an MVP, but if they did, she’d be it,” Bryant said. “I’m three-deep in the circle with Leah, Madison Borders and Lily Henry. Those two have done an outstanding job of easing the load on Leah, but she was dominant today.”
The only run of the championship game came in the fourth inning. Bailey Harris led off with a single and was sacrificed over by Madyson Cromer. Bailey held Harris at second when the Lady Tigers made a diving catch on Henry’s bloop to right, but he waved her around when Macey Roper lined a single to right center.
Cromer’s bunt was as big as any play the Lady Raiders’ pulled off in the tournament.
“She hits in the 5-hole,” Bryant said. “My hat’s off to her; she just wants our team to win. She didn’t have any kind of reservation about bunting. A lot of kids will have an attitude about bunting in a situation like that, but she shared in that game-winning run as much as anyone.”
Harris, Roper and Ava Boozer all had three hits on the day for PV. Taylor Nix and Rylee Haynes both had two hits. One of Haynes’ hits was a two-run homer; she had four RBIs on the day.
“We talk all the time about controlling the things you can control and that’d be things like pitching and playing defense and hustling,” Bryant said. “All week I thought we did a good job of pitching, defense and controlling what we can control.”
Cleburne County reached the championship game by beating Alexandria (1-0) and then White Plains (1-0) in the semifinals. Jayci Boozer held Alexandria to two Rylee Gattis singles and no-hit White Plains.
In other local softball news, organizers of the Calhoun County Tournament are strongly considering taking not just the championship game but the final four teams in the bracket to Jacksonville State on April 9 with games at 4:30 p.m., 6, 7:30 and, if necessary to crown a champion, 9.
Bryant is all for it.
“Absolutely; I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “Anytime we get to put our girls on a field like Jacksonville State’s, that’s a great thing. The more teams you can get involved in that environment it’s better for our county and softball … I just hope we’re one of the four there. I’d be honored to play there.”
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