Lady Pirates win county tournament

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer

HAMILTON — The Winfield Lady Pirates softball team are the Marion County tournament champions after a 5-3 win over the Hamilton Lady Aggies on Saturday, April 6.
The tournament began the night before and opened with a game between the Lady Pirates and the Phillips She-Bears, which Winfield won 17-0.
The Lady Pirates advanced to play against Marion County, where they secured another win 11-2.
The next game was between the Brilliant Lady Tigers and Hamilton, which Hamilton won to face Hackleburg in the second round.
The Lady Aggies continued their winning streak, sending the Lady Tigers to the loser’s bracket.
The losing teams from the first few rounds started playing on Saturday morning, starting with Brilliant and Marion County. The Lady Red Raiders made it through the first round but fell to Hackleburg in the second.
Hackleburg had just knocked out Phillips, and then continued to face the loser of the Winfield and Hamilton game.
The Lady Aggies shut out the Lady Pirates 4-0, pitting the Lady Pirates against the Lady Panthers for a final shot at redemption.
Winfield responded by shutting out the Lady Panthers 8-0 to get another shot at Hamilton in the final round.
The final game turned into the final two games, as the Lady Pirates came back and beat the Lady Aggies 3-1. Since Winfield already had one loss and Hamilton had only one, one more game was needed to determine the winner.
Late on Saturday night, the Lady Aggies scored one run in the top of the first, which was answered by three from Winfield in the bottom of the inning.
The Aggies were able to score one run in the top of the second and one more in the top of the fifth to tie things up 3-3.
But in the bottom of the fifth, Winfield’s Hannah Kimbrell was able to steal home to break the tie. That was followed by a hit from Lexi May that brought a runner home to put the Pirates ahead at 5-3.
Neither team were able to score in the remaining innings, so the Lady Pirates won 5-3 to claim the county championship.
In the final game, Winfield’s Hannah Kimbrell scored two runs, along with two RBIs.
Over that weekend, Winfield’s Kenna Beth Lacy pitched for 21 innings, earning three wins and allowing three earned runs, while also throwing 20 strikeouts.
Lacy made five hits and brought in five RBIs.
Jayci Griffin was named to the all-tournament team after making eight hits. Karah Parr made six hits…