Fair / 70° F
Wallace State Lady Lions ACCC Champs … again
Published 11:05am Thursday, May 7, 2009It was a three-peat for Wallace State-Hanceville’s softball team Tuesday as the Lady Lions rolled to a 10-1 victory over Jeff State in the ACCC Softball Tournament finals at Alabaster’s Veteran’s Park.
Freshman Stephanie Needham was 4-for-4 with a two-run homer and six RBIs en route to Tournament MVP honors, Kelsey Dennis tossed a one-hitter, striking out seven in the win.
“The girls did what they had to do. They were focused on their job the whole time,” said head coach Jayne Clem, who also earned her eighth ACCC Coach of the Year honor in 10 seasons. “Winning another state championship was their goal at the first of the year. Now, they’ve got one more goal and that’s to defend their national championship.”
Wallace State (58-8) now advances to the National Junior College Athletic Association Softball Tournament in St. George, Utah beginning May 14.
Wallace State strolled through the competition in Alabaster, finishing a perfect 4-0. The Lady Lions defeated Alabama Southern, Jeff Davis, Faulkner State and Jeff State and limited their opponents to just three runs in 28 innings.
Dennis put the lid on the domination. The freshman lefty surrendered just one hit and one walk to Jeff State as she improved to 31-2 on the season.
After the game, the Pelham native was named the NJCAA Region XXII Softball Player of the Year, which automatically placed her on the 1st-team All-Region. She was also named to the All-Tournament Team.
“Winning a state championship feels amazing. I’ve never been a part of one,” Dennis said. “It took all of us to win it. All of the freshmen knew we had a lot of big shoes to fill, but we knew we could do it. The sophomores helped us a lot in buying into the program. We knew what we had to do and it feels great to accomplish it.”
Wallace State faced a 1-0 deficit in the first inning, but answered with a five-run first of its own to grab a 5-1 advantage. The Lady Lions added three more runs in the second and two in the sixth.
Needham, a freshman from Hewitt-Trussville, had a hand in every rally. She had a two-run double in the first, a two-run single in the second, and capped the afternoon with a two-run blast to left in the sixth.
Clem hasn’t been surprised at the consistent freshman production like she received from Needham and Dennis in the title game.
“They’ve been in big games before in high school and travel ball. They’ve played in some big games before,” Clem said. “They knew we needed them to step up.”
LaRae Womack had two singles and a pair of sacrifice flies for Wallace State, Natalie Harrison had two hits and Sallie Van Kirk and Sallie Beth Burch each had a hit and scored two runs.
Wallace State had four players make the All-Region XXII Team: Dennis, Van Kirk, Needham and Kristen Skinner.
Allison Reynolds, Burch and Harrison were named to the 2nd All-Region XXII Team.
Van Kirk, Reynolds, Skinner, Dennis and MVP Needham were all named to the All-Tournament Team.
