Louisa County softball had already won the program’s first region championship this season.
Might as well get that first state title out of the way too.
The Lions capped an incredible 2023 run Saturday with the program’s first ever softball state championship, blowing past Halifax 9-1 to wrap up the title, riding another stellar performance by Emily Gillespie in the circle and at the plate to the championship.
Gillespie went 4-for-4 and had four RBI while also striking out seven and allowing just a single run in the circle.
State tournament softball games are usually marked by narrow scores, due to the fact that by that point, the sport is dominated by elite pitching matchups. Louisa’s explosive offense turned that on its head.
Fifth innings have been particularly kind to the Lions and they piled up runs against a Comets squad they’d beaten in the Region 4D title game. It got started with a Mallory Freslick single, followed by Savannah Bragg and Dara Sharpe reaching on errors. Gillespie then doubles on a line drive to left to clear the bases. That blew the game open and Lauren Goodman kept it rolling with a single that scored Arianna Taylor who was running for Gillespie when the Halifax shortstop committed an error. Haley Walker followed that with a single to score Goodman and Emily Chisholm doubled before Laci Garrett doubled again and scored Walker. Greslick singled to knock in Garrett.
Louisa ended the game with 13 hits and finished error-free on defense.
The Lions end the season at 24-1 and finish the year on a 19-game win streak.
