Staff Reports Houston Academy and Providence Christian advanced to area tournament championships in Class 4A and 3A on Monday during high school softball action.
Dale County, which ended its season with a 20-23-1 record, was led offensively by Ainyah Stokes, who was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Dareion Warren had two hits and Allie Buckelew had a single and an RBI. Nichols pitched a complete-game, seven-inning, three-hit shutout with six strikeouts and one walk. She also provided two hits and two runs batted in offense.Dale County 12, Geneva 10: Dale County seized a 12-4 lead after four innings, but had to hold off the charging Panthers, who scored four in the fifth and two in the sixth.
For Geneva, Kaden Ward had two hits and drove in four runs and Ally Henderson had two hits and two runs batted in. Both Aubree Lamb and Kiersten Lewis had two hits and Erika Torres had a single and an RBI. Pitching dominated the Providence-Ashford game. Providence’s Ella Houston struck out nine and allowed only three hits and a run over seven innings to earn the win, while Ashford Emma’s Ard gave up two runs, only one earned, and four hits, over six innings, striking out two and walking two.
Ashford scored two go-ahead runs in the fourth after NMA had a 1-0 lead with a third-inning run. The Ashford runs came off a Kadence Carroll run-scoring single and an error by the NMA catcher. The Knights’ run scored on a Kolbi Hall ground out.