The State Championship’s opening game, which is the first of a best-of-three series between Wayne Christian Eagles and Freedom Christian Academy, did not disappoint. This season, Wayne Christian has defeated Freedom Christian Academy twice, but this game was tighter than the other two, and the Eagles won 9-8 on an Ella Fox home run in the park to retake the lead and win.
With a 2-1 lead after the first three innings, Wayne Christian had the upper hand. However, Freedom Christian came out firing in the fifth inning, going on a scoring spree and pushing to take the lead 6-4. In the top of the sixth, Freedom Christian didn’t let up, scoring two more runs on an RBI triple from Rylan Miller and an RBI single from Victoria Bryant to push their advantage to 8-4.
Freedom Christian was riding high, but Wayne Christian wasn’t having it. In the bottom of the sixth, Eagles turned up their batting, putting themselves in a terrific position to score by loading the bases. The event was created by Katie King’s outstanding left field hit, which struck the fence and led to an RBI triple that raised the score to 8-7. After Katie King’s big hit, Ella Fox bats one to the fence to create her in-park home run to reclaim the lead and win. Freedom Christian Academy did not manage to take back the lead in the seventh inning, and the Eagles went on to win the first game of the best-of-three series.
The NCISAA 2A State Championship has been won by the Wayne Christian Eagles after game two. Eagles triumphed over Freedom Christian in a best-of-three series with a sweeping victory. This year, the Eagles have now defeated the Patriots four straight times. Wayne Christian put a lot of effort into this victory, which made their championship victory even more satisfying.
The Eagles got off to a strong start at the top of the first thanks to a two-RBI double from Maddy Sutton, who gave her team a 2-0 lead. With the aid of a few careless throws from the Patriots, she stole third and home plate in the same play a few pitches later to make it 3-0.
For the Patriots, Rylan Miller hit a double to get on base and Victoria Bryant followed that with an RBI single to bring the score to 3-1. In the bottom of the first, Savannah Graham hit a popup sacrifice ball to score a run and bring the score to 3-2.
The Eagles increased their lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning on the strength of two RBIs from Millie Fox and Maddy Sutton, which increases the intensity of the game and puts pressure on the Patriots to attempt a comeback in the seventh inning.
Which the Patriots almost done by a couple of miss throws by the Eagles after a terrific hit by Savannah Graham that resulted in an RBI single to bring in the first run and the second runner stealing home to bring the score to 6-5. With the pressure of getting the last out of the game with a runner on third base, Eagles pitcher Riley Sutton didn’t appear phased by the pressure of the situation when she walked up to the plate to cleanly strikeout the Patriots last batter to earn Wayne Christian the championship.
By Jalaan Signal
