The North Jackson Lady Chiefs are the defending Alabama Class 4-A state softball champions and they played like it at the 2022 ReMax Choo Choo/Lady Cane Invitational at the Summit softball complex in Collegedale this weekend.
The Lady Chiefs beat East Hamilton 3-2 in a Friday game, but nothing was even remotely close after that as they won six games over the weekend by a combined score of 63-6, including a 10-0 four-inning win over those same Lady Canes in the championship Saturday afternoon.
In case you're wondering, North Jackson is just across the Tennessee-Alabama line about 10 miles on the other side of South Pittsburg. Bridgeport and Stevenson High Schools merged to form this school.
Coach Kevin Thompson always enjoys bringing his team to tournaments in Chattanooga as they get treated well, have a lot of fun and face some outstanding softball competition in the process.
The veteran coach was all smiles after his sixth win of the weekend that improved his team’s record to 19-7 for the season.
“We had a lot of fun up here this weekend as the hospitality is always great and we’re able to face some strong competition,” he said after team pictures were taken with the championship trophy.
“We’re on spring break this week, but I thought our focus was really good as we just wanted to get better. These girls did an outstanding job as they saw the ball well and we had good production at the plate,” he added.
East Hamilton coach Norma Nelson knew that North Jackson had an outstanding team. She was really pleased at how close Friday’s game was, but things sort of fell apart on the second day.
“I thought we gave them a really good game on Friday, but we’ve played every day this week and we just got tired and ran out of gas,” Nelson explained following the game.
“They hit it well all weekend. I wish we could have won, but we just have to play better defense,” Nelson added.
The Lady Chiefs started their final game the same way they had started the rest of their games this weekend, by scoring early and often.
Two runs in each of the first two innings gave North Jackson a 4-0 lead and that became 5-0 in the third before the Lady Chiefs batted around in the fourth and scored five runs, the game ending with one out following a bases-loaded walk to leadoff hitter Jakhia Hutchins.
The Lady Chiefs finished the game with 10 hits including four players with two hits apiece.
Hutchins had two hits, scored two runs and drove in a pair while Arielle Haynes and Avery Wynne both had two hits and two RBIs.
Peyton Hill drove in the first run in the first inning with a one-out triple into the right-field corner to drive in Hutchins while a single by Haynes allowed Hill to score for the 2-0 advantage.
Hutchins then had an RBI-double in the second inning and scored the second run on a double steal.
Wynne drove in the fifth run with a single in the third while Haynes and Wynne both had run-scoring hits in the fourth . An East Hamilton error allowed another run to score while yet one more scored on a wild pitch before Hutchins ended the game with the bases-loaded walk.
Destry Lambert was the winning pitcher for North Jackson as she allowed just two hits and no runs while striking out two and walking one.
Reese Knox led off the game with a walk and went to second on a sacrifice by Dani Wasserstrom, but that’s where she stayed as Lambert retired the side and retired nine straight batters before Wasserstrom led off the Lady Cane fourth with a single.
Grace Hixson followed with a single, but that was it as Lambert retired the next three batters without any further trouble.
While North Jackson improved to 19-7 over the weekend, East Hamilton is now 16-6 with both losses this weekend to North Jackson.
EAST HAMILTON 000 0 – 0 2 2
NORTH JACKSON 221 5 – 10 10 0
D. Wasserstrom and N.Wasserstrom; Lambert and Wynne.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)