Faith narrowly misses fourth title

By Staff Reports
Published in Sports on May 11, 2009 1:46 PM

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Trinity Christian-Greenville benefited from several defensive miscues and upended Faith Christian 8-1 to claim the 2009 N.C. Christian Schools Association 2-A softball championship on Saturday.

The victory ended Faith Christian's three-year reign as state champion.

Lauren Moore logged 12 strikeouts for Trinity and surrendered one run on three hits.

"We just didn't hit well," said Faith Christian coach Jeff Stocks.

An error allowed Trinity (13-2 overall) to take a 2-1 fourth-inning lead. The eventual state champions profited from three seventh-inning Conqueror errors and plated six runs to seal the outcome.

The Conquerors, the NCCSA Coastal Region champions, concluded the year 10-3 overall. Stocks' last four teams are a combined 53-10 during their phenomenal run on the softball diamond.

Faith Christian is just the second school in Wayne County history to compete for four consecutive state championships on either the public, independent or Christian school levels. Wayne Country Day is the other program.

Stocks said that pitcher Jennifer Christopher earned first-team, all-state honors. Brooke Anderson was a first-team, all-region selections. Teammates Mindy Godwin and Alyssa Hill garnered second-team, all-region recognition.

Saints drop pair

WILSON -- Southern Wayne finished fourth overall in Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference regular-season play after dropping two weekend contests on the softball diamond.

The Saints fell to 4-3 to Wilson Beddingfield in 10 innings on Friday evening and 2-0 to Hunt on a sweltering Saturday afternoon. The back-to-back defeats gave Southern Wayne (10-12 overall) the No. 4 seed for the ECC tournament, which begins Tuesday.

Against Hunt, the Saints relinquished single runs in the first and third innings. Right-handed hurler Lauren Darden logged 12 strikeouts in the pitcher's circle and suffered the loss.

Madison Davis, Jordan Coor, Christina Williams, Kayla Gracyk and Carlie Heath contributed one hit apiece.

Southern Wayne capitalized on a seventh-inning outfield error and grabbed a 3-2 lead against Beddingfield. The Bruins responded with one run in their final at-bat in regulation play.

After two scoreless innings, Beddingfield loaded the bases with one out against the Saints. Southern Wayne recorded a forceout at home, but an infield error allowed the Bruins (6-4 ECC) to push across the winning run and sweep the regular-season series.

Morgan Davis doubled and collected three hits to lead the Saints' offense. Williams, Madison Davis and Brittany Pate each pounded out a hit.

Darden posted 12 strikeouts in a losing effort.