FAIRLEA — Greenbrier East took advantage of a throwing error to score a historic run Tuesday with a 10-7 come-from-behind victory against George Washington to sweep the Class AAA Region 3 softball championship series.
With the win, the Spartans qualified for the state tournament for the first time in school history.
The tournament has been held every year since 1981, with the exception of 2020 due to COVID-19.
Tied at 5-5 after playing home run derby to tie it in the fifth, the Spartans switched up to small ball to win it with five runs in the sixth.
Gracie Gumm drew a leadoff walk and Jenna Groves tried to bunt her around. The throw was wild, allowing Gumm to score that historic go-ahead run.
Reagan Cline scored the winning run for Greenbrier East on a wild pitch to make it 8-5.
The Spartans improved to 21-9 with the victory.
“I really can’t describe what it [a trip to the state tournament] means,†Greenbrier East coach Aaron Ambler said. “It’s always been in the background of these girls’ minds. All the winter workouts, all the work these girls put in — like I said, no team has ever done it in school history. To do it is huge. Just huge.â€
Down 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the Spartans stormed back with the long ball. Taylor Boswell hit a two-run home run, her fourth of the season. That scored Cline, who had led off the inning with a base hit.
That motivation powered Kayla Bartley, who had come close to homering in her first two at-bats with two deep drives to the fence.
She finally got it over the fence, her sixth of the season, to tie the score at 5-5.
“I felt like that was going to be my at-bat,†Bartley said. “I just needed to get my pitch and square it up. I had just missed the other two by a little bit. I knew what I could do, I just had to wait for a pitch I could hit.â€
The Spartans scored their first five runs in two-out situations.
“They have a great team,†GW coach Bub Hobbs said. “I’ve known [Greenbrier East assistant coach] Joey Boswell a long time. We talk on the phone almost every other day, and we both knew it was going to be a dogfight; we knew it was going to come down to a two-out hit. They were fortunate to have a couple more two-out hits than we did. That was the difference in the ball game.â€
George Washington got on the board in the first inning, going up 2-0 without the ball leaving the infield.
Kaitlyn Swisher beat out a ground ball to start the game. Reagan Wolfinbarger then tried to bunt her over. She was out, but an error allowed Swisher to come all the way around to score.
Natalie Tomblin singled and scored on a wild pitch, making it 2-0.
Greenbrier East’s Lily Carola made sure the lead didn’t last long with a two-out, two-run double in the first, scoring Hailey Ervin, who reached on a base hit, and Taylor Boswell, who reached on a fielder’s choice.
The Patriots did damage one run at a time from the second to the fourth innings.
Karalyne Wade singled in the second and scored on Faith Tetrick’s single up the middle to restore the Patriots’ lead at 3-2.
George Washington took a two-run lead in the third inning when Tomblin singled with two outs and Addie Armstrong brought her home with a long single to the center field fence.
In the fourth inning Greenbrier East turned to Bartley, the winner in Game 1 on Monday night in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.
“She did a good job against them [Monday],†Ambler said of going to Bartley, who gave up six hits and three runs, although a bulk of that came in the seventh after the Spartans went up 10-5.
“She was locating her pitches, and they chase some balls. Lily was pitching a great game. She was just missing some spots, left a few pitches over the plate. But she kept us in the ball game. We felt we were in it, even though we were down. We felt we would get the bats going. Kayla came in and got in a groove and shut them down.â€
“I wanted the ball, I always want the ball, and I love being [in the circle],†Bartley said. “I was ready for that moment.â€
In that fourth inning, Tetrick singled sharply through the box to score Lauren Ballard, who walked and moved around to third on a wild pitch and then a passed ball to make it 5-2.
The Spartans had a couple of big defensive plays to stop two of the Patriots’ one-run innings from being more.
In the second, Cline caught a rope near the left field line that was dying quickly with a runner on.
In the fourth, the Spartans turned a double play ahead of a double by Swisher to eliminate two runners.
George Washington finished the season 20-10.
Bartley came over from Covington, Virginia, for her senior year. She was asked what she knew about the West Virginia state tournament.
“Not a lot,†she said. “I just know that we need to win three games to be state champions.â€
