The Baylor softball team won its fifth straight TSSAA state championship Thursday with a 2-1 win over GPS on Field 3 at Murfreesboro's Starplex Softball Complex.
photo by Dennis Norwood
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Winning one state championship in any sport is always special, but it gets taken to another level when a team is able to repeat such an incredible feat.
The Baylor softball team has taken winning state titles to a whole new level as they won their fifth straight Division II-Class AA title here at the StarPlex Field No. Three with another one-run win over the GPS Bruisers.
It was the fourth time these two teams have played this year with the Lady Red Raiders winning the last three.
Wednesday’s winners’ bracket final wasn’t decided until two outs in the bottom of the seventh with Baylor winning 4-3. Thursday’s championship battle was equally as close with Baylor pulling out the 2-1 victory.
Baylor improves to 42-3 while GPS ends another outstanding season at 28-9.
“We have at least six girls on this team who weren’t part of this before, but it’s always special and never gets old,” said Red Raider coach Kelli Smith, who has now won two state titles as a player and 11 as a coach.
“This is really a close group of girls and those girls in the dugout are just as happy as those on the field. I’m so proud of them all, but I’m really proud of my freshman Syd Berzon, who pitched another great game and came through with the big hit as well.
“We weren’t as sharp defensively as we normally are, but I felt like the day was our ability to answer immediately after they scored. But this is really an unbelievable feeling and something hard to describe,” Smith nodded.
Berzon was the winning pitcher after allowing one run on four hits. She struck out four and walked none.
Stella Henry had a one-out infield single in the third and later scored on the second of three Baylor errors.
The Bruisers never scored again, but an infield single by losing pitcher Hannah Sanders and another error allowed Ariana Whatley to reach, but Berzon coaxed Ansley Blevins into a grounder to second to end that threat.
Then in the seventh, Brynley Oliver ripped a two-out double to the corner in right, but was stranded at second when Henry flied to center to end the game.
Baylor came back in its half of the third to take the lead.
Emily Rye led off with a single before Mikayla Packer reached on a bunt. Sophie Piskos reached on a fielder’s choice with Packer being forced at second for the first out. Acelynn Sellers grounded to Oliver at third for the second out before Berzon stroked a 2-2 pitch into left for a two-run single, driving in Rye with the tying run and Piskos with the eventual winner.
“It was another crazy game, but to see everything come together for another state championship is amazing. I was just hoping for anything at the plate when I got the two-run single. I know I could have done better, but I know that I’m needed by my team. I’ve battled GPS multiple times this year, but it’s nice to beat them again,” said the 15-year-old freshman who is a first-year boarding student from Buffalo, N.Y.
Raven Jones was the only player for Baylor with two hits while her teammates had four others.
GPS coach Susan Crownover was somewhat emotional following Thursday’s game.
She had quite an intense conversation with the homeplate umpire in the first inning when Whatley grounded to first for an out before Elizabeth Warwick was thrown out at home trying to score after leading off the game with a single.
The veteran coach really didn’t want to talk about that incident, but she was all about how proud she was of her team for putting up such a valiant battle.
“This is a special group of kids and it goes much further than just a softball team,” Crownover began.
“We’ve always been able to get back up after getting knocked down, but today was one of those games where we just didn’t push across enough runs. Hannah Sanders gave us all she had and the rest of the team played their hearts out as well, but we just came up short again,” she nodded.
Baylor’s state title is its fifth straight and eighth in the last nine years.
GPS 001 000 0 – 1 4 0
BAYLOR 002 000 x – 2 6 3
Sanders and Blevins; Berzon and Piskos.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)