FAYETTEVILLE -- White Hall was all that stood between Vilonia capping a dream postseason with a softball state championship following the town's tornado nightmare last month.
The Lady Bulldogs were up to the task.
Sophomore Lauren Graves hit a two-run home run in the first inning and pitched White Hall to a 7-3 victory over Vilonia for the school's third consecutive Class 5A state championship on Friday at Bogle Park.
White Hall Coach Terri Smith and her team responded soon after the April 27 tornado that devastated the Vilonia and Mayflower communities in central Arkansas with assistance, including $200 in gift cards and loads of toiletry items.
"It's amazing they got here after all that," Smith said.
The Lady Eagles' personal toll from the tornado was significant, with two players and an assistant coach losing homes and another player's home being badly damaged. But the town rallied around its softball team, showing up in large numbers Friday to back the girls who painted crosses on their faces for the state final and sharing tears and hugs in a lengthy postgame session behind the third-base dugout.
"I could not ask for a better group of kids," Vilonia Coach Kevin Sullivan said. "I mean, they worked their rear-ends off all year long, and I'm so proud of them.
"You come from what we had happen and the kids showed a lot of resiliency, a lot of guts, a lot of fight, a lot of compassion for our community. Just the opportunity for our town to kind of get away from that area, get away from the destruction and get up here and get to this stage is a great honor.
"We were excited about it. We hate that we couldn't bring it home for our town. You feel like you kind of let the town down when you do something like this."
White Hall pounded out 12 hits -- including five for extra bases -- and capitalized on a couple of late errors to score twice in the seventh and stretch its advantage to four runs.
"Oh my gosh, it's just unreal," Smith said White Hall winning its third consecutive state title. "This doesn't happen very often."
"It was exciting the other times, but this one I felt was more personal because it's my last game," said White Hall second baseman Abby Weaver, who went 1 for 3, walked twice and scored twice Friday and was named the Class 5A tournament's Most Valuable Player.
Graves (12-3) yielded 7 singles on the mound and went 3 for 4 at the plate with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. Graves followed Kayla Reap's single with a two-run home run, her fourth of the season, just over the left-field fence off Leah Thomason in the first inning.
"I got a curveball that I just drove to left field," Graves said. "It was a high pitch, and I just pulled my hands over and took it where it was placed."
Vilonia rallied with single runs in the second and third innings to tie it. Morgan Gray was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on a dropped fly ball to short left in the second. Ashley Lyons, Catherine Lloyd and Cacy Simpson opened the third with consecutive singles for the Lady Eagles, but Graves limited the damage to one run. She induced a pop-up and struck out a batter before walking Kristen Wade to force in a run, then escaped with a strikeout.
White Hall took the lead for good in the fourth off reliever Sydney Wader (9-1). Summer Henderson singled and scored on Madison Martin's bases-loaded walk, then Graves followed with an RBI single to make it 4-2.
Wade's single brought home Sarah Montgomery, who had also singled, to pull Vilonia within 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth, but that's as close as the Lady Eagles could get.
"It's a little sad to think we didn't get it done, but at the same time, the resiliency -- I had two kids lose their homes -- just the guts, the sheer passion and fire that we showed to muster up and keep on plugging and get to this point, I just can't say enough about our kids."
Sports on 05/24/2014