Matoaca walks off a winner in state softball title game

ARLIE – It’s a dream no more. 

Now, it’s reality, big as life, bright as a mid-June day.

With their 2-1 victory over Lightridge in the VHSL Class 5 championship softball game contested Saturday afternoon on the diamond at John Campe High School, the Matoaca Warriors reached the mountaintop in their inexorable quest for competitive excellence, and they took their final glorious steps in the most exciting of ways.

In an epic pitching duel pitting two Division I commits, the Lightning (24-1) scraped together a run in the top of the sixth and led 1-0 when Coach Scott Driskill’s crew came to bat in the bottom of the seventh.

Where there were outs left, the Warriors knew, there was hope.

They’d come too far, worked too hard, and paid their dues with an enormous amount of sweat equity.

They’d been down before and come back. What better time to do it again than now?

“We have a bunch of kids who came together, and when they faced adversity, they stood up,” said Driskill, whose team finished 26-1. “Our leadoff batters in the seventh were 6-7-8-9. Nobody wants that. Guess what? They sucked it up, did what they had to do, and next thing you know, we’re state champions.”

With energy flowing from the Warriors’ dugout and the large contingent of Matoaca faithful shouting encouragement from the bleachers and along the fence, Savannah Wright (2-for-3) led off the bottom of the seventh by beating out a chopper to the left side of the infield for a single.

She moved to second on Kaylee Millner’s exquisitely executed sacrifice bunt, then to third on a wild pitch.

Maddi Wray followed by drawing a walk on a 3-2 count to put runners on first and third, then yielded to pinch runner Zy’Aisha Marbury. 

After Marbury stole second, Makennah Harler, the No. 9 hitter, got under an attempted bunt and popped it in the air but reached first on an infield error to load the bases with one out.

Next up was leadoff hitter Abby Davis, who drilled a shot on the ground to Lightning first baseman Avery Sullivan, who stepped on the bag as Wright scored the tying run. 

Then with two outs, Raven Crabtree stepped to the plate. 

With the outfield playing in, the senior second baseman, in her final at bat in a Matoaca uniform, drilled a waist-high 0-1 fastball to the wall in leftfield sending Marbury home and igniting a spontaneous celebration amongst the passionate contingent who traveled from lower Chesterfield County to witness the Warriors’ softball program’s first ever state championship.

“Their pitcher (Georgia Tech commit Peyton Robinson) was throwing it more outside, and with her speed I just wanted to make barrel contact,” Crabtree said. “When I saw that pitch, it was so pretty. I knew I had to take it somewhere.

“I just wanted a big moment for our team. I’ve been telling the girls (that) it’s not about one individual player. It’s about all of us coming together and being a team. While I did walk it off, it wasn’t just me alone. It was really a team win, for sure.”

Lightridge, whose campus is located two miles from John Champe, created its lone run with two outs in the top of the sixth.

Cara Welton headed to first when she was hit by a pitch and was replaced by pinch runner Natalie Welton, who proceeded to steal second, then score when Emmi Harris followed with a sharp single to left center.

It was the lone hit off Kaylee Hodges, the Warriors’ junior righthander par excellence.

“My mentality was, yeah, that happened, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” said Hodges, a University of Tennessee commit. “All I can do is go at the next batter, try to get a weak hit, a strikeout, a ground out, whatever, and do the best I can, not think about the past.

“We knew we had to score to win anyway. That lit a fire under us.”

Though time was fleeting and hits were at a premium withthe flamethrowing Robinson (four hits, nine K’s, 77 strikes among 101 pitches) in the circle, there was no panic in the Warriors’ dugout.

“Coach Berkeley (Driskill) told us we play better when we’re behind anyway,” Crabtree said. “We took that momentum and carried it into the last inning, knowing we had to give it our all.”

Hodges, a two-time Virginia Gatorade Softball Player of the Year, was perfect through 5.2 innings.  With her typically solid repertoire of pitches, she allowed only one hit and no walks and struck out 10. Of her 71 pitches, 58 were strikes.

A rise-to-the-moment .551 hitter with nine home runs, Hodges was on deck when Crabtree delivered her championship-winning hit.

“We do it for our people we play with, we do it for our coaches, we do it for our fans,” Hodges said. “It’s one at-bat at a time. That last inning, we really pulled it out. 

“Oh, my goodness. I’m so excited. I’m beyond proud of my teammates.”