Pike Liberal Arts softball head coach Allie Park has said since the beginning of the season she felt like her team was capable of achieving great things, and during their Tuesday game the team realized its full potential.

The Lady Pats beat the Monroe Volunteers 8-7 in a seventh-inning comeback to secure the area championship.

Park said she was thankful to see a dream of hers finally come to fruition for the team.

“It’s something that I really hoped and expected that we would do well and be successful and win,” Park said. “Honestly this game we were behind and came back the last batter of the seventh inning, which was really fantastic.”

Park said the team had been on edge the whole time, especially after catcher Amberlyn Baker got hurt in the sixth inning.

“The players were so nervous because we were down,” Park said. “AB got hurt in the sixth inning, Kayla Benton hit a triple and came back to win. It meant a lot to win, especially that way. It means a whole lot more to me now that we can win even though we don’t have the strongest players out.”

Park said the team will face Fort Dale today in an area game, and she expects her Lady Patriots to approach the game with a different attitude after Tuesday’s challenge.

“I think going into this game we thought we were going to do better, so it was kind of scary to get behind,” Park said. “We were neck and neck the entire game. Sam Yarbrough did a great job pitching and AB did a great job behind the plate like she usually does. Our regular hitters weren’t on like they usually are. The other team had a lot of big hits that we weren’t ready for as we should have been.”

The Patriots had eight runs on 14 hits, and Park said she was proud of how the whole team played, especially Benton who had a triple in the seventh inning to secure the win.

Bailey Rushing went three for three with a walk, Sam went three for four. Kayla Dendy went two for four with a triple and a double. Kayla Benton came in clutch in the seventh inning with a triple with two RBIs. She had the most RBIs for the entire game and she was 1 for 5. She also had an RBI in the fourth inning with a sac fly.

The Lady Patriots are now 25-9 for the season.