Tunstall returning to Group AA state championship after defeating Patrick County

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RADFORD — Alyssa Dougherty sprang from the dirt, leaping into Tunstall coach Roger Cook’s arms as the center fielder’s delirious teammates mobbed her at home plate.

“When I crossed that plate and she didn’t have the ball and she didn’t tag me,” the speedy Tunstall senior said after beating the throw home, “it was like a feeling that no one can describe. It was amazing.”

Dougherty twice bunted successfully and scored from first base, including on a walk-off double by freshman Taylor Dix in the eighth inning, to help send the Trojans back to the Group AA state championship game with a 3-2 victory against Patrick County on Saturday at Veteran’s Field in Radford.

Undefeated Tunstall (23-0), which dealt Piedmont District rival Patrick County (20-5) all five of its losses this season by a single run, opposes two-time defending state champion Broad Run (21-3), a 2-0 winner against Orange County (21-5) in the other semifinal, for the Group AA state championship here at 1 p.m. today.

Broad Run ended Tunstall’s season each of the previous two years, taking a 4-0 victory in last season’s state title game — when the Spartans were ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today — and a 1-0 win in nine innings in the state semifinals in 2007.

“I’m going out knowing that what we’ve built at Tunstall High School is respected by most everyone in the state of Virginia, from the far West to the East Coast to Northern Virginia and D.C., and win or lose (today), that’s the one thing that I am really most proud of,” said Cook, who is retiring after 26 seasons with the Trojans and is the only head coach his program has ever known. “We built a tradition at Tunstall High School. People know that we play good softball down there, and that’s the one thing I’m most proud of.”

Tunstall was forced to rally from a 2-0 first-inning deficit against the Cougars on Saturday, just the second time the Trojans trailed an opponent this season. Tunstall also trailed 2-0 in the first inning at Bassett on April 24, when the senior-laden Trojans rallied for a 3-2 victory against the Bengals.

“They came out ready to play. From the first pitch you could tell that they were tired of losing to us, they wanted to win and they were in it to win it,” Tunstall senior Brittany Arnn said about Patrick County after striking out eight and allowing no earned runs on three hits and no walks. “We just let them get to us in those first couple of innings. … We just got very flustered and I guess the hype of being here in Radford, once we realized what we were doing we had to step out, look around, settle down and get back in our rhythm.”

Jenna Rudder crushed a double to deep center field to score Dougherty in the third inning, cutting Patrick County’s advantage to 2-1 and whipping the Tunstall dugout into a frenzy. Britney Hyler, running in place of Arnn, who drew a walk, scored from second on a Cougars fielding error to knot the game at 2-2 in the fourth inning and send Patrick County coach Gerald Culler pacing around his dugout.

Tunstall was retired in order in each of the next three innings, including in the bottom of the seventh when Patrick County turned a double play, but jumped to life in the eighth thanks to Dougherty’s second bunt. Dougherty accounted for two of Tunstall’s four hits in the contest and set the stage for the dramatic finish delivered by Dix, who laced a double down the left-field line with two outs to score Dougherty from first and end the game.

“She had been leading me off with a hard pitch every single at-bat so I just had a feeling it was coming,” Dix said about Patrick County pitcher Kaitlyn Culler, who struck out seven and allowed two earned runs on four hits and a walk. “I was just going to swing as hard as I can and if I whiffed, I whiffed.”

The RBI double provided a heart-pounding ending to a contest that started nearly as intense.

Patrick County leadoff batter Ingrid Joyce took second on a fielding error to begin the game, advanced to third on a fly ball to center and scored for a quick 1-0 lead when Kaitlyn Culler batted into a fielder’s choice. Suzanne Plasters was hit by a pitch, reached second on a base hit by Kylene Culler and scored for a 2-0 advantage on a grounder to right by Brittany Martin. Kylene Culler also attempted to score from first on the play as Tunstall catcher Megan Dillion struggled to pick up the ball, but Dillion recovered just in time to tag the runner for the final out of the inning.

Patrick County advanced a runner to third in each of the next two innings, but was unable to score again as Tuntsall retired the Cougars’ final 18 batters in order.

“I just knew it was going to be another tight ballgame, like the others,” said Culler, who led the Cougars to their first-ever state playoff victory this season. “We got out to an early lead but that lead is obviously not safe enough with Tunstall. … As a group of hitters (the Trojans) battle at the plate and they’ve got some left-handed speed at that top that’s difficult to deal with sometimes. Obviously Arnn is a great pitcher, but they’ve got a tough lineup, too.”