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MONTGOMERY – You don’t change a winner.
And as it had all season long, pitching and defense carried Class 6A No. 2 Vestavia Hills in its first two games at the AHSAA championship softball tournament, needing two more wins to take the school’s first softball title ever.
“We did good to get runs today, but as always it was hitting and defense that carried us,” said Vestavia Hills coach Lissa Walker as her 53-7 team will play No. 1 Sparkman at 10:30 a.m. at Lagoon Park. “When you get to this level and look at the level of competition, you’re going to have those games.
Vestavia opened with a 1-0 nine-inning win over Theodore, then finished with a 2-0 win over Bob Jones thanks to a Hannah Taylor solo homer to leadoff the fourth inning.
“I think that homer relaxed us,” said Taylor after her 15th homer of the season. “We were really pumped up for this game and when we scored two runs, it helped.”
The Rebels padded the lead in the same inning when Caroline Hardy’s sacrifice fly to right scored Abbie Miranda with a 2-0 lead. Meanwhile, Rebecca Hein held Bob Jones (46-18) to just three hits and struck out 10 in picking up the win.
“Our defense definitely kept us in it,” said Hein. “And when (Taylor) got it going, we played a lot harder and we relaxed and got in the groove.”