The Salem High softball team has been declared River Ridge District champions after defeating Pulaski County at the Moyer Complex Tuesday, 6-1. With the win Salem clinched the best record in the RRD at 13-1 and the Spartans are now 18-4-1 heading into Region 4D play.
Originally a district championship game was scheduled to be played on Friday of this week, but due to last week’s rain many games had to be postponed until this week. It was decided to declare the team with the best regular season record the district champion and Cave Spring has the next best district record with three losses.
The Spartans closed out the regular season in style this week, beginning with a shut out win over Patrick Henry in Roanoke Monday, 12-0. Freshman Evie Van Liew had a three run homer and six runs batted in against the Patriots while Caitlin Wells and Kayden Dalton had three hits each. Van Liew, Cora Robinson and Olivia Crosswhite had two hits each in the Spartan lineup and Crosswhite, Cora Grace Sparger and Robinson split time on the mound for the shutout.
On Tuesday Robinson fanned a dozen in the win over Pulaski. Wells, Van Liew and Piper Furmage had two hits each for the Spartans and Ciara Steele had three runs batted in.
Salem’s win on Tuesday was the Spartans’ sixth straight and 15th in their last 16 games to close out the season, including a 7-1 win over Christiansburg on the road last week. Furmage had a three-run homer in that one for one of her three hits.
“This team worked hard and had a goal in mind back when off season workouts started,” said coach Jeremy Wells. “We came together as a team and the kids bought into what our goals were…a District Championship was the first goal we wanted to achieve. We’re excited to see what we can do in the next few weeks.”
The Region 4D tournament is scheduled to be played next week but matchups won’t be determined until this week’s games are concluded.
