ACA catches fire at right time to top LAMP in Area tourney

ACA’s Katie Chappell is forced out at second on the throw to LAMP’s Gracey Norris in the Eagles’ win on Wednesday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

They’re back.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the softball field, Alabama Christian Academy emerged from a season of struggles and a string of one-run losses with a pair of back-to-back wins in their last at-bat to reach the championship game of the 4A Area 3 tournament, guaranteeing the Eagles another trip to the regional tournament.

“We’re peaking at the right time,” said ACA coach Chris Goodman, who will have to put off his retirement for at least another week. “ACA softball does pretty well in the playoffs. We want to keep that tradition going.”

ACA (21-19) will face the winner of today’s noon matchup between LAMP and St. James in the area tournament championship game at Lagoon Park Softball Complex at 2 p.m.

Both teams in the championship game will advance to the 4A South Regional at Gulf Shores Sportsplex, where the top two teams will advance to the state tournament the following week in Oxford.

“We want to win the area, but who cares?” Goodman said. “We’re going to the beach, trying to get into the top two of the regionals. In two of the last three state championships, we were runner-up at the regional, so we just want to advance.”

ACA had lost twice in the regular season to St. James before defeating the Trojans 5-4 on Tuesday with a run in the seventh inning. On Wednesday, the Eagles scored a run in the bottom of the sixth to break a 1-1 tie and win against another team that had swept the regular-season series. 

“It feels great,” ACA senior pitcher Rose Costanza said. “I’m really proud of us. We’re not getting defeated by that one run, we know we can come back and beat them instead of just letting them win.”

It was Costanza who rallied the Eagles after LAMP pitcher Caitlin Russell had doubled off the fence and scored on Haley Herron’s single for a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth. Costanza blasted a one-out pitch from Russell over the left field fence in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game. 

“I knew I was going to hit it when I got up there,” Costanza said. “I knew I had to do something to get it started. I had no doubt. I knew she was going to throw me inside because that’s what she did the last time and I popped it up, so I got ready and just hit it.”

It was one of only two singles Russell surrendered entering the sixth inning, when back-to-back singles by Izzy Warrick and Katie Chappell gave the Eagles the lead. Warrick blooped a shot just over Gracey Norris at shortstop and stole second, then scored when Chappell’s hard-hit liner bounced off of Joanna Joiner’s glove at first base. 

LAMP (24-13), meanwhile, managed just five hits off Costanza. 

“We didn’t hit the ball,” LAMP coach Anthony Norris said. “I had nine girls swinging but I only had three that could put it in play. And if you can’t score runs, you can’t win. I don’t care how good you’re pitching and we pitched great that game.”

The Golden Tigers fell into the elimination round where they will face St. James, which defeated Booker T. Washington 15-0 to reach the noon game. The winner will advance to the championship game and earn a trip to the regionals, joining ACA in the postseason journey.

ACA has advanced to 24 consecutive regionals in its 25-year history as a fast pitch program, not counting the 2020 season that was suspended by COVID-19. Only once in the previous 23 regionals -- in the 5A regionals in 2016 -- has Alabama Christian failed to reach the state tournament and that team reached the finals of the elimination round before settling for third place in the regionals.

This year, until back-to-back wins on Tuesday and Wednesday, the regionals seemed like a distant memory.

“It’s been a long year, the fact that we had so many young ones on the team,” Goodman said. “We graduated some really good bats off the (2019 state) championship team and COVID got us (in 2020) and that graduation hurt us. It’s been a battle. But they’re starting to get an idea about this stuff. If (Costanza) keeps throwing it the way she’s been throwing it and Izzy keeps throwing it the way she’s been throwing it, I like our chances.”