Staff report
MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan’s softball team beat East Rowan in Thursday’s South Piedmont Conference championship game.
Second-seeded West’s 5-1 victory over the top-seeded Mustangs ended the Falcons’ six-game losing streak against their toughest rivals.
East (21-3) had beaten West (20-4) four times in 2024 and two more times this season, as the Mustangs won their second straight regular-season title.
West seems to win the conference tournament every other year. The Falcons won it in 2019, 2021 and 2023. East won it last season.
The tangible reward for the Falcons is a trophy. The intangible rewards were a feeling of relief, the reclaiming of some bragging rights and a wave of momentum as the Falcons head into the 3A state playoffs. A fourth meeting in the playoffs could happen somewhere along the way, as neither team is going to be easy to eliminate.
“We finally played a good game against East and the ball finally bounced our way against them,” West head coach Jimmy Greene said. “This is the calmest game a West team has played against East in a while. East had a chance for a big inning, but we didn’t panic, and that was the key to the ball game. Our defense really came through and Arabelle (Shulenburger) was able to shut them down.”
Shulenburger also drove in the first run for West. Reese Poole and EA Nance had two big hits each.
“No balls hit out of the park tonight,” Greene said. “Camryn Perkins is a tough pitcher and kept us off-balance. But whenever we had a chance to score, we did.”
Jordan Dry had two hits for East.
Playoff seeds and pairing will be announced on Monday. The playoffs start Tuesday.
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