When the West Orange bats were slow to get going Lauren Mathis put the team on her back from the circle.
The Warriors rode Mathis’ stellar pitching performance to claim the Class 9A State Championship over Alonso 6-0.
Mathis, a junior, struck out 15 batters and carried a perfect game into the top of the 5th until Jessica Louth broke it up with an infield single. In total she only gave up 4 hits.
“Lauren Mathis, that’s her, she’s been doing that all year,” said West Orange head coach Todd LaNeave. “She gets the ball out there and she’s been incredible.”
West Orange was kept off the board by Alonso’s Jodi Handler until the bottom of the 5th when Maggie Wheless got things going with a double. Lexie Mosur came in to run for Wheless and moved over to third on a wild pitch. Hailey Penrose reached base on a fielder’s choice and was this then brought in by Lexie Blair’s 2 RBI single up the middle. The Warriors would add one more run before the inning ended.
The sixth inning would prove to be more of the same for the Warriors as they scratched off three more runs courtesy of an RBI from Maggie Wheless and 2 RBI’s from Jade Caraway.
It’s West Orange’s second state fastpitch softball title in school history and first since 1994.
“I don’t even know what I was doing in ‘94,” said LaNeave. “Honestly it’s kind of surreal, it’ll probably hit me maybe Monday when we’re not going out to the field to practice and it’s just like wow, these girls are awesome. I really don’t know what to say.”