Raiders Roll Past Grayson 7-4

OXFORD, AL - Northwest Florida handled #6 seed Grayson easily as the Raiders beat the Vikings 7-4 in the Final 4 matchup. The Raiders will face Odessa to earn a spot in the National Championship game.

The scoring got started early as Sydney Stewart led things off with a triple followed by a sacrifice fly from Gyvan Hammons to put the Raiders up 1-0. Riley Gibson led off the 2nd inning with a solo home run followed by a triple from Abigail Pippen. Three batters later, Ashlyn Shirah hit a 2-run homer off the scoreboard in left center field to make it a 4-0 ball game.

The game was stuck at 4-0 for a few innings until Gyvan Hammons' double scored Ashlyn Shirah to make it 5-0 in the 4th inning. In the bottom of the 5th, Sophia Jones smoked a triple into center field, bringing in Pippen and Maycie Hardy hit a hard ground ball to shortstop that allowed Hardy to reach first safely and scored Jones to make it a 7-0 game. 

A few hits in the 6th inning gave the Vikings hope as they cut the deficit to 7-3 and Grayson threatened in the 7th with runners on first and second with no outs until Julia Petty ended the game with a strikeout, ground out, and a line out.

Julia Petty was a stud for the Raiders as she threw 7 innings, allowing 7 hits and striking out 6. Gyvan Hammons was 3-3 with 2 RBIs and Abigail Pippen and Sydney Stewart each had 2 hits in the game.