By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
A week after Eastern Alamance and Southern Alamance softball teams shared a conference championship, they shared something else that wasn’t nearly as pleasant.
It was the misery of one-run losses in the Class 3-A state playoffs.
Both Central 3-A Conference teams were ousted Friday night in second-round games.
This means that for the first time since 2018 there won’t be an Alamance County softball team in the Class 3-A state championship series. Eastern won in 2019 and 2022, while Southern won in 2021. Western Alamance was last year’s runner-up. There was no tournament in 2000 because of the pandemic.
• Southern, seeded third in the East Region, lost 8-7 to 14th-seeded Union Pines.
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The Patriots (19-5) never led, falling behind 8-2 when Union Pines posted a five-run fifth inning. Abbey McKenzie boosted Union Pines by driving in four runs.
Southern rallied with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning, three more in the sixth and another in the seventh.
• As the No. 15 seed, Eastern was on the road at second-seeded Southern Nash, which won 2-1.
The Eagles (15-9) trailed 2-0 until Kayden Manning drove in Destiny Carreiro in the sixth inning. Eastern pitcher Delani Straughan struck out five batters.
