Northwest Florida Gets Revenge on Odessa, Earns Spot in National Title Game

OXFORD, AL. - Northwest Florida came ready to play today as they had to win two games in order to secure a spot in the National Championship game. And they did just that. The Raiders beat #6 Grayson 7-4 and #1 Odessa 5-3 to make it to the National Championship game.

The Raiders struck early as Maycie Hardy doubled in the second inning to bring in Abigail Pippen. Sydney Stewart beat out a throw from shortstop scoring Sophia Jones and forced an error by the first basemen to bring in Hardy to make it a 3-0 game. A single by Gyvan Hammons brought up Layla Thompson, who singled up the middle scoring Stewart before Hammons was thrown out at the plate.

The game was a stalemate until the top of the 5th inning when Odessa made some noise with a 2-run bomb to make it a 4-2 game. In the 6th, Petty started to show signs of being worn out after throwing 122 pitches in game 1 and then 90 in game 2 and walked the first batter followed by a wild pitch and a single to cut the game to a 4-3 lead for Northwest Florida.

Emma Langston gets called in from the bullpen and the sophomore righty shut down the Wranglers in the 6th to prevent any further damage. In the bottom half, Pippen hits a double to center field and Maycie Hardy singles to left field bringing in Pippen to give the Raiders a much needed insurance run. Langston shut down the #1 team in the country in the 7th inning to put the Raiders in the National Title game vs. Florida SouthWestern.

The top of the lineup produced for the Raiders as Sydney Stewart, Gyvan Hammons, and Layla Thompson each recorded two hits. Maycie Hardy also had two hits and led the team with her 2 RBIs. Julia Petty finished game 2 with 5.0 IP and 6 strikeouts.

Northwest Florida will take on #2 seed Florida SouthWestern for the National Championship game. Since FSW has not recorded a loss throughout the tournament, the Raiders will have to defeat the Buccaneers twice in order to be crowned National Champions. However, it has been done before as Florida SouthWestern did it just last year, defeating McLennan twice to claim the fame.

Tune into ESPN+ to watch the Raider Softball team compete for a National Championship on Saturday, May 27th at 12:00 PM!