ROANOKE, Va. – The Northside softball team won the 2023 Class 3 softball state title on Saturday at Riverbend High School. This is the first softball title Northside has won since 2010.
After going down 1-0, Northside scored two runs by McKenzie Taylor and Sydney Jordan to take the lead. In the top of the 7th, Taylor scored again to add insurance.
The Viking defense lead by pitcher Baylee Compton held off York, who tried to rally late in the game.
“I can’t believe it, at the beginning of the season it looks so far away, a State Championship,” senior Carsyn Michaels said. “We never doubted that we couldn’t do it, but it just seemed so far away at the time, the fact that we’re here, it’s just unreal.”
Head Coach Kassie Brammer helped lead the Vikings to the state title in only her second year.
“You know, offensively, we definitely thought that they [York] would be productive, but at the end of the day, we know Bailey’s a good pitcher,” Brammer said. “Our defense has really stepped up all season, that when balls are put into play, we’re going to keep things in front, making that next play, the right play, stuff like that.”
“Oh my God it was life-changing you couldn’t even describe,” senior McKenzie Taylor said. ‘I had no words, I didn’t know what to do, just tears everywhere.”
In Class 1, Auburn defeated Rye Cove 1-0 to win its 4th consecutive state championship--a VHSL record.
It proved to be a pitchers duel early between Rye Cove’s Eden Muncy and Auburn’s Kirsten Fleet. The both of them racked up strikeouts throughout the day. The difference came in the top of the 7th inning. That’s when Rachel Brotherton reached base on a hard single to short. A few batters later, Avery Zuckerwar picked up the decisive RBI single for the eventual 1-0 win.
“These kids they’re just so relaxed,” said Auburn head coach Tim Smoot. “They don’t get down when stuff happens. We just work and work until we make or break it and two of my leaders just put it together there at the end.”
“I mean we all wanted this so bad for all the seniors and I know the underclassmen, just giving them that experience of winning a state championship because they keep it going throughout the program so I think we had a lot of heart the past two days,” said senior pitcher Kirsten Fleet.
The win proved to be the 4th consecutive VHSL Class 1 championship win for Auburn--now a VHSL record.
James River battled Tazewell in the Class 2 ranks. While the Knights proved to score first and take a 1-0 lead, the Bulldogs bats proved to be too much in what was a 5-2 final. Tazewell’s bats came alive in the second inning when they tied the game off of an RBI double from Alayshia Griffith for the 2-1 advantage.
Then in the 4th inning the Bulldogs dropped 3 runs and took a commanding 5-1 lead. James River’s Jenna Pugh hit an RBI double in the 5th but that was the last of the offensive production as the Knights finish as the Class 2 runner-up.
In Class 4 action, Halifax County fell to Louisa County 9-1.