Two wins.
Two wins is the goal for softball teams across the Mountain state when regional play kicks off Monday.
In Region 3, Greenbrier East will battle George Washington in Class AAA, while Independence and Bluefield will clash for the AA title.
The Class A champion will be decided between budding rivals Greenbrier West and James Monroe.
Each regional tournament is a best-of-three series with the winner advancing to the state softball tournament played at Little Creek Park in South Charleston, starting Wednesday, May 24.
The Spartans (23-5) and the Patriots (19-10) split their two regular season games with each team winning on their home field.
The ladies from Fairlea are looking to make some history by earning the first ever regional crown for the school.
Greenbrier East topped longtime rival Beckley for the sectional title and has proven itself at the plate with eight players hitting .300 or better.
Senior Lindsay Black leads the Spartans hitting .506, followed by junior Taylor Boswell at .448. Black also leads the team in hits with 42 and has 21 RBI. Boswell has a team-high 40 runs batted in and five home runs.
Junior Gracie Gumm has knocked in 22 runs and has four dingers, while fellow junior Lily Carola has drive in 21 runs with three big flies.
Along with hitting .365 with a .495 on-base percentage in the lead-off spot, senior Josi Ervin is 14-4 in the circle with a 0.97 earned run average. Carola has also been effective going 8-0 this year with a 2.70 ERA.
“We have been hitting the ball really well 1-through-9. If we are going to win it will take me and Lily throwing the ball really well,” Ervin said after the sectional win. “Our defense will also have to come in big.”
George Washington has been impressive in the postseason. The Patriots dropped an 8-0 decision to St. Albans, but battled back with three wins to take the sectional title. The last two wins came over the highly-touted and favored Red Dragons.
G-Dub will bring some heavy lumber to the series having hit 34 home runs as a team. Junior Karalyne Wade leads the homer parade with 12 and senior Alexis Adkins has 10 bombs.
Adkins lead the Patriots with a .454 batting average, including 44 hits and 35 RBI. Wade hits .385 with 35 hits and a team-high 41 RBI.
Tylie Barton (.344) has 25 RBI in her junior season and senior Passion Holley (.378) has driven home 21 runs for the Patriots.
Freshman Natali Tomblin has been a standout as well with a .385 average, including 40 hits and 30 runs scored.
Adkins is 17-9 in the circle with a 3.49 ERA.
Game one of the series will take place Monday in Fairlea, with game two heading to Charleston Tuesday. If game three is needed, the series will return to Greenbrier County
The AA clash will be the first time the Patriots and the Beavers meet this year.
“We played them last year and handled them fairly easily. They have the same kids back, but they are much better obviously,” Independence head coach Ken Adkins said. “I have been able to talk some other coaches that have played them.”
Bluefield (24-6) has been the surprise of the softball season winning its first-ever sectional title which encompassed two wins in New Richmond over No. 1 seed Wyoming East.
The Beavers hit their stride on the Myrtle Beach trip across spring break and have been red-hot ever since. Over the last 15 games, Bluefield has 14 wins and has been unscathed in postseason play.
Sophomore Maddie Lawson has been crazy-good at the plate with an eye-opening .602 batting average. Lawson has 57 hits, 50 runs batted in and has scored 41 times. In the two postseason wins over East, the sophomore sensation was 5-for-8 with five RBI.
Flanking Lawson has been Abby Richardson hitting over .400 with 35 RBI in the regular season. Izzy Smith (.400), Cara Brown (.382) and Sophie Hall (.373) have all drove in over 30 runs this season.
Hall had a double and two RBI in the 6-5 win over the Warriors to advance to the sectional title game. In the championship game, the sophomore second baseman had three hits in five trips to the dish.
Smith leads the Beavers in the circle with 14 wins this year.
Independence (22-8) was the regional champion two years ago and has been battle tested throughout the season playing a daunting schedule.
The Patriots sport one of the top pitchers in the state in Delaney Buckland who has a 20-5 record with a 1.143 ERA. Over 147 innings pitched the senior all-stater has 263 strikeouts.
Buckland has also been a nemesis at the plate hitting .368 in the lead-off spot with a .569 on-base percentage.
As a result of the rugged schedule Independence played, the hitting stats may not jump off the page, but the Patriots have shown they can be effective all through the line-up.
Senior Kendall Martin hits .429 with 32 RBI and has five home runs. Martin also has a .750 slugging percentage with 36 hits on the year.
Martin’s most recent homer was in the sectional championship win over Shady Spring.
“That was a blast. She can do that more often, but she is an unselfish player,” Adkins said. “She will give me a fly ball to bring a run in. If I tell her to give me something to the right side, she can do those too.”
Junior Alli Hypes (.383) has 36 hits and has scored 37 times. Sophomore Emma Lilly (.389) has 37 hits and leads the Patriots with 38 runs batted in this year.
Sophomore Kassidy Bradbury (.365) has been on fire late in the season with some key hits at crucial moments in the postseason. Bradbury has a .484 on-base percentage with 27 hits and 26 runs scored.
Game one will be played Monday at Larry “Tom” Poe Field in Coal City with game two moving to Bluefield. If game three is needed, it will be played back at Independence.
The fact that the Class A Region 3 title comes down to James Monroe and Greenbrier West is really no surprise.
So far this year, the two schools have met in the football playoffs, regional volleyball tournament and the regional boys basketball tournament.
Greenbrier West returns to regional play for the first time since 2019 and sports a high-powered offense which has been lethal all through the line-up this season.
The Cavaliers (21-2) have scored 39 runs so far in three postseason games and scored double digit runs in 13 of its 20 regular season contests.
Sophomore Preslee Treadway and freshman Brilee Redden have hovered around the .500 mark all season with senior Emma Ames close behind.
Maddie Fields has also been a nightmare for opposing pitchers in her sophomore season hitting over .400 along with junior Julia Herndon.
Ames hits two homers in the sectional win over Richwood, while senior Michaela Alley had a triple and an RBI. Redden doubled in the game-winner against the Lumberjacks.
In the two wins over Midland Trail, Treadway knocked in a total of eight runs, including a home run, a double and three RBI in the championship win.
Fields was the difference maker in the championship game with a two-RBI double and a grand slam that was the eventual game winner.
Redden and Alley have held down the circle effectively for the Cavaliers.
James Monroe (17-11) has steamrolled through the postseason so far outscoring its three opponents 35-0.
Four sophomores have provide most of the firepower for the Mavericks this year. Chloe Burt has a .526 batting average including 40 hits with 17 going for extra bases. Madison Booth (.468) has 37 hits and 21 RBI.
Shailyn Wickline hits .425, including a .571 on-base percentage. She also has 31 hits with 23 RBI. Bryleigh Thomas (.424) rounds out the sophomore standouts collecting 36 hits on the season with a team-high 33 RBI. Thomas has done most of the work in the circle pitching over 121 innings with 127 strikeouts.
Junior Jordan Lowe is hitting .432 and senior Haley Hunnicutt hits .390.
Greenbrier West took both regular season meetings, but James Monroe enters the regional round with 11 wins in its last 13 games.
Game one will be played in Crawley at Western Greenbrier Middle School, while game two will be in Lindside. If the tournament goes to a third game, it will played be back at Western Greenbrier.
All games are scheduled for 6 p.m. starts.
