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Published Sunday, October 30, 2011 in Sports

Photo by Jeffrey Leo

Northgate players and coaches converge in a postgame championship celebration Saturday in Columbus.

Undefeated Elite 8 run leads to second state softball title for Lady Vikings

By Doug Gorman

The Newnan Times-Herald

COLUMBUS -- The Northgate Lady Vikings softball team came to the Elite 8 as a No. 4 seed on Thursday.

But they left Columbus Saturday afternoon as the Class AAAA state champions, knocking off rival Whitewater 4-3 in a game decided by the international tie-breaker.

Senior pitcher Ashley Clifton got all three Whitewater hitters to ground out in the bottom half of the eighth inning to secure the victory.

(To view or purchase photos from this event, please visit http://photos.times-herald.com/mycapture and click on Sports for the Northgate HS Wins Class AAAA State Championship gallery.)

"It just goes to show that seeding is just a number and it really doesn't matter once you get to this point," Northgate head coach Lisa Skelton said. "It's who shows up that day."

With the game tied 3-all heading into the eighth, Northgate (26-6) took the lead when Jamie Faver picked up the RBI with a base hit. In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Northgate defense did the rest.

"I wasn't worried about them scoring," said Clifton. "I knew I had a good defense behind me."

She was right.

None of Whitewater's batters were able to get the ball out of the infield in the final inning and when Taylor Studivant hit a ground ball to Katie Sachs for the third out, the Lady Vikings stormed the field in celebration of the team's second title in four years.

Northgate took control of the game in the top of the first inning when lead-off hitter Brenna Skalski reached on a base hit and shortstop Ansley Smith was hit by a pitch.

That's when Andie Martin stepped to the plate and hit a towering three-run homer.

"It was really good to get us going in the first inning," Martin said. "We were ahead or tied with them most of the game, and that was really big."

Martin's blast turned out to be runs the Lady Vikings would need down the stretch.

Whitewater pitcher MacKenzie Toler helped her own cause in the bottom of the first when she ripped a solo home run to cut the lead to 3-1.

The Lady Wildcats tied up the game 3-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning pushing across two runs when Kimberly Perkins and Rachel Williamson reached on base hits and scored runs for the Lady Wildcats.

Whitewater had its chances to take control of the game three different times.

The Lady Wildcats left the bases loaded in the third inning and also left two runners on base in the sixth inning and seventh innings, but Northgate found a way to pitch out of the trouble.

Whitewater, which beat Ola 3-1 earlier in the day, also had its chances to send the championship round into a third and deciding game in bottom of the seventh.

A one-out walk to Toler and a base hit by Gabby Hunt with just one out put the Lady Wildcats in position to win.

However, two popouts ended the threat and sent the game into the international tiebreaker portion of the game.

"I wasn't even thinking about having to play another game," said Clifton. "You just sort of play for the moment."

Clifton, who has committed to play at Georgia Tech next year, struck out out three batters along the way.

After surrendering the first-inning home run, she settled down and retired five in a row through part of the third inning.

Toler had three strikeouts for Whitewater.

After giving up the first-inning home run, Toler didn't surrender her next hit until the sixth when Jayne Proctor reached on a single.

Until securing the championship, Northgate had been on a roller coaster ride this month.

A-less-than-stellar performance at the Region 3-AAAA tournament earlier in October pushed the Lady Vikings to the No. 4 seed entering the Class AAAA tournament.

However, once it entered the playoffs, Northgate didn't lose a game.

The Lady Vikings swept Lovejoy and Evans to get back to the Elite 8.

Paulding County nearly sent the Lady Vikings to the loser's bracket Thursday on the first day of the tournament.

The Lady Patriots built a 5-4 lead and had Northgate down to its last out before Northgate scored 10 straight runs to blow open the game en route to a 14-5 victory.

Northgate then beat Union Grove and Ola to move into the championship round.

" I knew we could do it," sophomore catcher Katie Burns said. "Just the way the unity of the team has been and the faith we had, we prepared for it well."

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