A 48-HOUR DAY: Brew Tech overcomes elements, long delays to earn first title; Wetumpka, Holtville bring home trophies
Brewbaker Tech defeated Ardmore twice to win the Class 5A state title in Oxford. It was the program’s first-ever title in any sport. (Contributed)
By GRAHAM DUNN
Despite spending nearly 48 hours with little sleep, sporadic stoppage in play, games being moved and rescheduled and, eventually, facing the difficult task of winning twice to take home the school’s first state championship in any sport, Brewbaker Tech coach Chris Steiner wasn’t worried.
You could say Brew Tech had them right where it wanted them.
“We had prepared for this all season,” she explained. “We had built mental toughness throughout the year. Nothing was going to keep us from our goals, even if it meant playing seven games in 48 hours.”
As cliches go, the Rams dug deep down to find what it takes to earn the school’s first state championship in softball (or any other sport), beating Ardmore twice in the finals to take home the “blue map” in the Class 5A State Softball tournament in Oxford.
In this case, perseverance got the Rams the trophy.
“I'm all gas and no brakes,” Steiner said. “You don’t give in and don’t get complacent under any circumstances. That’s what we have stressed all season.”
It was as simple as knowing if the team had enough physical stamina to make it through two straight days of rain delays and extended games that pushed the finals to late Thursday night (or Friday morning as was the case), so late that the last out of Brew Tech’s 4-0 win in the deciding game of the 5A bracket was recorded well after midnight.
“We were up almost for 24 hours,” she explained. “When you play at 9 a.m. and games last all day, you get out and then have to wait on rain, it can get tough. We had to call to get food delivered and then had to do it again.
"It turned out to be a 48 hour day… but we made it.”
The Rams got through the first round with a win over Scottsboro but was defeated by Elmore County to drop down to the loser’s bracket on Thursday. But weather began pushing everything back and Brew Tech began the waiting game before finally taking the field to defeat Marbury, 12-2.
The Rams followed with a hard-fought win over Scottsboro (3-2), pitting them against Elmore County again with the winner moving into the finals to face Ardmore.
Brew Tech fought off an early 2-0 deficit before getting a two-run homer from Lyl Bandy, her first in varsity softball.
Khamiyah “K” Brown added another homer while her twin sister, Taniyah “T” Brown had two doubles and drove in three runs.
Like she did in every game in the tournament, T-Brown picked up the win pitching all seven innings.
That set up the finals where the Rams needed two wins over Ardmore to claim a championship.
But weather continued to stretch out the day and by the time the championship round began, the Rams found themselves waiting again, this time in the late hours of Thursday.
“We found ways to keep ourselves occupied,” Steiner said. “They had nice locker rooms where we waited out the delays and got out games to play. Luckily the players have plenty of electronic media to keep them occupied.”
The Rams finally got to finish off the first game with a 3-2 victory, scoring two runs early with a K Brown single to plate two.
She would shut out the Tigers through five innings, allowing one hit.
But the rains came again, this time with a five-hour delay.
When the two teams returned to action, a T Brown homer to give the Rams a 3-0 lead. Ardmore scored a run in the sixth and one more in the seventh.
The Rams followed with an impressive 4-0 shut out in the final game with T. Brown pitching all seven innings. She gave up five hits and struck out five to earn her 43rd win of the season against only eight losses. Her win total was tops in the nation.
She was named the tournament MVP and was joined by teammates K Brown and Gabby York.
Brown finished the year having pitched a whopping 267 innings with 326 strikeouts, 116 walks and gave up 33 earned runs. Her ERA for the year - 0.86. She set the team record with 21 home runs.
The Rams finished the season with a 47-10 record, also a school record.
“(It’s) still trying to sink in,” Steiner said. “I know what I saw and we set that goal but in a two-year span, with this group of kids, we have been overly amazing in the transformation of this team. These are great kids, great students - several with a 4.0 grade point average. What they have accomplished is remarkable.”
Several of the seniors will play college ball with the Brown sisters headed to Memphis. Gabby York is set to play at Pensacola State and Grace Hunter headed to West Alabama.
Wetumpka raises the championship trophy high after earning the Class 6A title over Athens in the finals. (AHSAA/Marvin Gentry)
Wetumpka wins 5A softball title
For the second time in school history, the Wetumpka Indians are state champions in softball.
The Indians (54-6) went through the Class 6A bracket undefeated and knocked off Athens, 1-0 in eight innings, to claim the title, the first since 2015, and the first for coach Daryl Otwell.
Chloe Taylor’s single scored Mary Beth Parette with the winning run in the eighth inning.
“I was scared,” Taylor said regarding her nerves during the at-bat. “I was shaking.”
Taylor had preserved the tie game in the top of the inning with a catch in left field.
“Chloe Taylor made that play in the outfield – one of the best plays I’ve seen in a long time. What a play,” Otwell said. “Then, she comes up with the walk-off (hit). You can’t write it any better for a sophomore.”
Wetumpka had reached the championship round with wins over Spanish Fort (9-8) plus early-tourney victories over Oxford (2-1) and Hazel Green (5-2). The Indians did not lose a game after dropping the South Regional opener to Baldwin County.
Mya Holt was named tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by Ashlynn Campbell and Lily Davenport. Holt was the winning pitcher in the wins over Spanish Fort and Athens. In the title game, she allowed just four hits and struck out six in the complete-game. Victory. She had three hits in the Spanish Fort win.
Sam Silas rounds third after his 2-run homer in Holtville’s win over Sardis in the Class 5A state championship series at Jacksonville State. (Marvin Gentry/AHSAA)
Holtville sweeps Sardis to earn 5A title in baseball
After falling in last year’s state championship series against Russellville, the Holtville Bulldogs were determined to return to the final round and take care of “unfinished business.”
Mission accomplished.
The Bulldogs needed a come-from-behind victory in the second game of the three-game series against Sardis but Sam Silas made sure that came true with a home run to break a 1-1 tie and give the Bulldogs a 3-2 win and the program’s second state title at Jacksonville State’s Jim Case Stadium.
“This is a memory I will treasure forever,” said Silas, who will play his college ball next year on the same field where he hit the game winner.
“We played a very tough schedule to begin the season, and we had a hard time finding our identity,” stated Holtville head coach Scott Tubbs, “At spring break, we were 10-8 on the season. We learned a lot about ourselves during that stretch.
"When it became playoff time, my guys flipped the switch and started playing with confidence. Our playoff stretch has been very tough, but my guys handled very well.”
Silas also drove in the first run of the game when he was hit by a pitch with the bases load in the second inning.
Silas added the game-winning hit in the first game of the championship series, a 3-2 victory at Oxford’s Choccolocco Park. His run-scoring single in the seventh inning broke a 2-2 tie.
He finished his season with a .411 batting average, three homers and 27 RBIs – four coming in the state championship series.
Holtville last won a state title in 1983, defeating Cherokee Vocational in the finals.
The title comes after Tubbs took the job at Holtville in the summer of 2020. He had previously coached in AISA at Edgewood, Macon East and Autauga Academy. He has battled colon cancer since 2019.