State softball
- Updated: May 14, 2025
Alexandria, Spring Garden and Woodland all survive their first day of state-tournament action, must fight out of the elimination bracket Thursday.
Wednesday’s state tourney scoreboard for area teams
CLASS 1A
Hackleburg 18, Spring Garden 5
Kinston 4, Woodland 1
Woodland 3, Waterloo 2
Spring Garden 8, Maplesville 3
Spring Garden 12, Ider 4
Woodland 7, Leroy 6
NEXT
Thursday
Spring Garden vs. Woodland, 9 a.m.
CLASS 4A
Alexandria 7, Curry 3
Orange Beach 3, Alexandria 0
Alexandria 3, Plainview 0
NEXT
Thursday
Alexandria vs. Curry, 10:45 a.m.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — Brian Hess’ Alexandria teams have made it to the last day of the state softball tournament qquite a few times, twice winning state titles. It never gets old.
“That’s the goal every year,” he said. “I told them, ‘If you get to the last day, you’re here. There are no other days after tomorrow.
“No matter what happens, win, lose, draw, whatever, there are no more days after tomorrow, so you made it to the final day, and that’s all you look for.”
Alexandria (41-10-3) will play Curry in Thursday’s 10:45 a.m. Class 4A elimination game. The Valley Cubs must win four games Thursday to win a state title.
Then again, the state’s fourth-ranked team made the de facto final four 4A teams still playing after going 2-1 Wednesday. Alexandria opened with a 7-3 victory over Curry but fell to Orange Beach 3-0 before beating Plainview 3-0 to avenge their only loss in last week’s East Regional.
“We had the toughest side of the bracket and just played tough,” Hess said. “Gritty group of kids. Man, we were a couple of hits away from doing damage to Orange Beach.
“Just proud of them.”
Alexandria managed three hits against Plainview but took advantage of two Plainview errors, four hit batsmen and two walks. Charlee Parris stole three bases and scored a run.
Pressley Slaton pitched a four-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts.
Slaton spread out eight hits with three strikeouts in six innings against Orange Beach.
Against Curry, Slaton went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. She also spread out five hits with nine strikeouts over seven innings.
Slaton got through three games with 286 pitches, including 194 strikes. She had two games under 100 pitches.
“Pressley just pitched her rear end off,” Hess said. “She’s figured out, ‘I don’t have to try to blow it past you. I can just try to spin it and let my defense play.’
“When she does that, we don’t get long in counts. She has short pitch counts, and is helps us through the day.”
Brenlee Sparks went 3-for-3 with a triple, a double, two runs and two RBIs against Curry, and Cali Hess had a single and three RBIs. Parris went 2-for-4 with a double and a run and a stolen base.
Class 1A
SPRING GARDEN: The Panthers opened state-tourney play with an 18-5 loss to Hackleburg but rebounded to beat Maplesville 8-3 and Ider 12-4.
Spring Garden (21-12-2) will play Woodland on Thursday at 9 a.m. in an elimination game.
Spring Garden beat top-ranked Ider for the second time in less than a week, including Thursday’s East Regional winners’ bracket final. Kylie Bates went 2-for-4 with a triple, three RBIs and two runs, and Lillly McCain went 1-for-4 with three RBIs.
Addie Word and Rylie Ham each went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Ham hit a double.
Maggie Jarrett wen 3-for-4 with two triples, three runs and an RBI, and Helena Ingram went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and two runs.
Avery Steward went 2-for-4 with a double and a run, and Olivia Law tripled and scored a run.
Law had a triple and three RBIs against Maplesville, and Word went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run. Bates went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and a run.
Jarrett and Word each had a double and two RBIs against Hackelburg.
WOODLAND: Woodland opened with a 4-1 loss to Kinston then won two one-run games … 3-2 over Waterloo and 7-6 over Leroy.
The Bobcats will play Spring Garden in an elimination game Thursday at 9 a.m.
Down 6-5 going into the bottom of the seventh inning against Leroy, the Bobcats got a leadoff single from Skylar Vann and double from Railey Williams. Both ended up stealing home to provide the tying and walkoff runs.
Vann went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two runs and two RBIs. Williams went 2-for-4 with a double and a run, and Emma Elsberry went 1-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Alyssa Taylor went 2-for-3 with a double, a run and an RBI.
Against Waterloo, Lucy Phillips hit an RBI single in the top of the sixth then advanced to second on the throw. She scored the go-ahead run by stealing third then scoring on an error.
Vann singled and had an RBI, and Taylor and Lilly Kirby had two hits apiece.
Photos by Joe Medley
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