Lady Scots softball claims fourth straight SAC Tournament Championship with win over Union Pines

LAURINBURG —The Lady Scots softball team claimed the 2025 Sandhills Athletic Conference (SAC) Tournament Championship, their fourth in a row, with an 11-0 victory over the Union Pines Vikings on Thursday night at Scotland High School. Scotland has beaten the Vikings in all three matchups this season, having also taken both regular season games in 9-0 finals on March 11 (in Cameron) and April 4 (in Laurinburg). The Scots (23-1) as the No. 1 seed received a bye in the first round before winning Tuesday’s semifinals game against Richmond 15-0 to qualify for the Championship Game.

Despite having already beaten the Vikings twice this year, Head Coach Adam Romaine knew coming into the contest that Union Pines is a capable group who the Scots may even see again in the state playoffs. The quality of opponent and difficulty of beating a team three times in one season are two key reasons Romaine felt good about his team’s performance on Thursday as they prepare for the postseason next week.

“They’re a good team, this is a second, possible third round type team we’re going to face in the playoffs,” Romaine said. “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row.”

After Avery Stutts sent the Vikings down in order in the top of the first, the Scots would take the early lead with three runs in their half of the inning. A one-out solo home run from Dawson Blue got Scotland on the board before Stutts would draw a walk and be lifted for a courtesy runner in Marissa Smith. A single from Ramsey Hale would advance Smith to third and she would score on a wild pitch (also advancing Hale to second) while an RBI single from Emily Sampson would make it 3-0.

Despite the Vikings getting a pair of singles and managing to load the bases with two outs in the top of the second, they couldn’t get any runs across. The Scots would then add two runs to their advantage in the bottom half of the inning, starting with Addison Ratley’s leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt from Addison Lewis to advance Ratley to second. Consecutive two-out walks to Blue and Stutts and a two-RBI single by Hale would bring Scotland’s lead up to five.

Stutts would send Union Pines down in order again in the top of the third while the Scots would add another run in the bottom of the inning on a one-out solo homer from Khloe Radford. The Vikings again would go 1-2-3 in the fourth frame while Scotland had a chance to add more to their lead in the bottom of the inning with runners on first and third with two outs but couldn’t bring anymore runs across.

Union Pines got their third hit of the game (leadoff single by Madison Stein) in their half of the fifth but couldn’t do anything with it. A one-out triple by Radford, an error on a fly ball from Ratley and another triple by Lewis (all in a row) in the bottom of the inning would bring Scotland’s lead up to 8-0.

Another 1-2-3 top of the sixth gave the Scots a chance to end the game in the bottom of the inning, which they would do by bringing three runs across. Stutts was hit by a pitch (Smith in as courtesy runner) before Hale got a single and Sampson was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. A one-out walk to Radford and a two-RBI double by Ratley brought in the necessary runs to end the game after six.

Hale led the team in hits with a 3-3 night at the plate, had two RBIs and scored two runs. Radford and Ratley had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored each.

Stutts pitched all six innings and had four strikeouts against one walk. She threw 75 pitches (57 strikes) to the 21 batters she faced.

Romaine was pleased with Scotland’s defense in this game. He was happy with the Scots’ ability to make reads on the ball and react appropriately to balls put in play, which he thinks will bode well for them as they continue to face good teams in the postseason.

“They put the ball in play a lot tonight, they made their adjustments, kudos to them for making adjustments,” Romaine said. “We work hard on defense everyday in practice with our 21 outs and these girls are ready for stuff like that. I’m glad they got the work defensively, it’s good for our defense to get us ready for the playoffs.”

Scotland will now wait until Monday for the seeds to be announced in the state playoffs bracket (first round games are Tuesday). All important dates for the remainder of the softball season can be found on the NCHSAA website here: Softball – NCHSAA.

While Thursday’s win was of course cause for celebration, Romaine’s focus is already on turning the page to what Scotland’s ultimate goal has been all season: a state championship. His message to his team after the win was simple: nothing we’ve done to this point matters, it’s all about what we do from this point on.

“Season’s over, tournament’s over, it’s all in the past now,” Romaine said. “We start a whole new dynamic of a season starting Tuesday and for the next five weeks everybody that comes in here is going to want to take us down. We can’t take nobody lightly, we’ll take it one game at a time and state that every single one of those teams coming here is that state championship game we have to play.”

The Scots were the No. 1 seed in the east region of the 3A bracket a year ago. They would crush Swansboro 15-0 in the first round before falling to No. 16 seeded Havelock 1-0 in the second round. South Brunswick would win the 3A state championship in 2024; Scotland split their two regular season matchups with the Cougars this season.