May 28, 2011 —
Northside won its 13th-straight Blue Ridge District tournament softball championship by beating William Byrd, 5-3, Friday evening at the Botetourt Sports Complex.
Northside picked up its first run in the top of the third when Aishia Wiley drew a walk. She advanced to second on a passed ball, then stole third and then scored when the Byrd catcher overthrew third. The Vikings Wiley executed a perfect slide by with a hand tag at home.
The Vikings scored again in the fourth, when Lauren Boitnott singled, was advanced on a bunt by Michelle Eplion and then scored on a Byrd error.
The Terriers picked up a run in the bottom of the fourth with a lead off single by Byrd's Powell and with an error from the Vikings pitcher scored from second base.William Byrd picked up a run and tied the game in the bottom of the fifth with a lead off single from Brammer and an RBI single from Byrd’s Guilliams.
As the Vikings entered the top of the sixth, the game got very interesting. Boitnott continued her great hitting and led off with a single. She was sacrificed over by Aishia Wiley. With a strong wind blowing directly in from center field the Vikings Rae Hall calmly walked to the plate and hit a towering home run over the left field fence. That put the Vikings back in the lead, 4-2. The Vikings were not done. Kelsey Jarrett almost hit one out with a double off the right-center fence. She was scored on a clutch RBI single from Caitlyn Porterfield. That put the Vikings on top 5-2.
As the rain started to fall, the Vikings got Byrd out in the bottom of the sixth with no runs. As the game entered the bottom of the seventh, the rain was starting to affect the Viking pitcher. Northside got its first out on ground ball hit back to the pitcher. Then Ruthie Williams, the Vikings pitcher, walked the next two batters. With two runners on Byrd’s Powell hit a line shot to left field which looked like it may be out. It hit the fence with such force that it went through one of the web squares on the fence. This limited Byrd to a ground-rule double, scoring one run, and holding their runners at 2nd and 3rd. Byrd’s Biggs hit a grounder to the Vikings shortstop, Kaitlyn Bowden, who threw her out at first and the Vikings clinched their 13th-straight tournament championship.
Ruthie Williams picked up the win inside the circle for Northside. She gave up three runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out one. Jessie Mahoney was charged with the loss for William Byrd. She gave up five runs on eight hits, walking four and striking out eight.
