STILL GOING: LAMP extends Norris' season with area tournament title
The LAMP Golden Tigers celebrate the area tournament championship claimed on Wednesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Retirement will have to wait.
He just wanted to get to the area tournament finals to secure a postseason bid to the South Regional, but his players had other plans as LAMP defeated Alabama Christian Academy 4-3 and 5-1 in the 4A Area 3 tournament championship game to send retiring coach Anthony Norris out a winner in his final game at Lagoon Park Softball Complex.
“I’ve never won the area tournament in 13 years when ACA was in the same area,” Norris said. “We had to beat them twice to do it and we did it. That’s the first time that’s ever happened. I told the girls they really honored my career. The last time I get to coach on the fields at Lagoon, they won the area tournament for me.”
It was LAMP’s third area tournament championship for Norris, who took over the program in 2010, but the 2015 and 2016 tournament titles came in the two seasons that ACA was a Class 5A program.
“He always lets us know that he’s not ready to go out yet,” LAMP ace Caitlin Russell said. “Halfway through (the final game), he was like, ‘I’ve never won an area championship with ACA in the area,’ so he was pretty excited. I think he’s pleased and that’s rare.”
LAMP (25-15) will play in the South Regional at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex on Tuesday against the Area 2 runner-up.
ACA put together a remarkable performance in the area tournament with a 4-1 win over St. James on Monday and a 2-1 win over LAMP on Tuesday to reach the finals and guarantee the Eagles a postseason appearance for the 25th time as a fast pitch program in 27 years after missing the first year (1996) and the COVID season of 2020 when the postseason was canceled.
“I saw a lot of fight,” first-year ACA coach Lauren Webster Veach said. “Our whole thing this year has been write your own narrative, write your own story, don’t let anybody tell us who we are. No one expected us to come in here and make noise. We’re a three seed. Everyone expected it to be LAMP and St. James to come out of here (with a regional bid) but that’s just ACA softball. We don’t quit in the postseason.”
ACA, like LAMP, will play in the South Regional next week in Gulf Shores, opening play against the Area 2 tournament champion. But after reaching the finals of the double-elimination tournament a day earlier, Veach wasn’t happy that a costly error gave the Golden Tigers the lead and eventually the win in the first game, which forced a second game and another LAMP victory.
“Right now, it feels pretty terrible because we should be (area tournament champions),” she said without ever finishing the sentence. “I feel good that we’re going to regionals, I will say that. From that very first Elmore County game, we have come so far. We have no seniors, our junior has no previous varsity experience, we have two sophomores (and the rest of the team is younger). We should not have even been here on Wednesday afternoon. I think that speaks volumes of their fight.”
A two-run single by Emily Daniels put LAMP in front 2-1 in the second inning, but the Eagles tied the game when Annabelle Pugh doubled and scored on Maddie Traywick’s single. A costly two-out outfield error by ACA in the third inning was followed by a two-run single by Herron that gave the Golden Tigers a 4-2 lead.
Norris, who made the decision to rest Russell for the finals, got a boost from Herron, who allowed just two hits over the final five innings and carried a 4-2 lead into the seventh before Traywick led off with a home run.
“She came in against BTW Tuskegee and she threw well,” Russell said. “So I felt confident with her going in there. She knows she’s just got to throw it there and let us work for her. She did her job.”
“Haley Herron came in and threw for soft contact and the defense made plays,” Norris said. “Lo and behold, the next thing I know is it’s the seventh inning and we’ve still got them by a run or two. I let Caitlin come in and close out the inning, but Haley did her job. Once we realized we could get the win, we jumped on them and it was an easy decision to bring her in for the second game.”
Russell retired the final three batters in order to get the save, then held ACA to four hits in the second game as LAMP broke open a 1-1 game in the fifth inning with a pair of runs. A two-run homer by Chandler Ming in the seventh closed the door on the Eagles.
“Today was a huge confidence booster for everyone,” Russell said. “I don’t think it could have gone any better.”
Warrick was 3 for 6 in the two games, including a single, double and triple. Traywick was 3 for 6 as well, while Anna Gleason was 2 for 5 with an RBI.
For LAMP, Herron was 4 for 7 and Russell and Joanna Joiner were 2 for 7 in the two games to send Norris and the Golden Tigers into the postseason on a high note.
“It meant everything,” Herron said. “He’s never won an area tournament with ACA in the same area and so I felt like we played this not only for ourselves but for him as well. We really came together as a team, knew what we had to get done and did it.”
LAMP scored four runs in the first inning and held off St. James 5-0 in an elimination-round game in the 4A Area 3 tournament on Wednesday.
Tigers eliminate Trojans
The Golden Tigers (23-15) advanced to the area tournament championship game with the win over St. James, 5-0.
“I was a little tight,” Norris said. “I apologized to the girls. I told both my (assistant) coaches I felt uneasy about today but it had more to do with my coaching career ending here today. If it ends in Gulf Shores or ends in Oxford (at the state tournament), I can live with that. I just didn’t want it ending here so this game was probably the most important game I’ve ever coached in the game of softball. I, at the least, wanted to see this little team go through the growing pains and make the playoffs, and they did so. I’m proud of them for that.”
The Tigers got there with a four-run first inning, taking advantage of seven walks issued by St. James pitchers.
St. James (20-19) saw its season come to a halt in the same manner it ended in 2021, falling one game short of the area tournament championship game. The Trojans lost ace pitcher Emily Needham two weeks ago with a leg injury and starting shortstop KK Hall on Tuesday with an ankle sprain, leaving the Trojans shorthanded.
Senior Cam Greene started in the circle, but singles by Russell and Joanna Joiner and walks to Chandler Ming and Gracey Norris gave the Golden Tigers a 1-0 lead and forced St. James coach Mark Hall to put Needham in the game.
Needham promptly surrendered a two-run single to Haley Herron and an RBI single to Ana Clark as LAMP extended its lead to 4-0.
“We just now got her healthy but she’s had zero reps,” Hall said. “She looked like she finally got in a groove in the second or third inning and really didn’t give up a lot once she got going. I haven’t pitched her in two or three weeks, leading up to this moment, to have her available. I went with the senior, Cam. She wanted to go out with a bang. She was our best option but it didn’t work out for us.”
Needham allowed just three hits the remainder of the game, but struggled at times with control, issuing five walks. A bases-loaded walk to Ming in the fourth scored Grayson Dickert for a 5-0 lead, but Needham minimized the damage by striking out the next two batters.
Russell allowed just five hits by the Trojans while walking two and striking out nine, keeping St. James from ever mounting a serious threat. Maddox Boyd went 2 for 4 in her final game as a Trojan.