Lady Panthers, Lady Pirates win NAC, WAC

By Luke Brantley
Staff writer

NAC
LYNN — The Hackleburg Lady Panthers are the 2024 North Alabama Conference varsity softball champs after winning the tournament for the third year in a row on Saturday, April 13.
The Lady Panthers won the final game of the tournament in a rematch against the Lynn She Bears. The Panthers ended up shutting the She Bears out 6-0.
In that final game, Carson Browning and Braylynn Pope scored two runs each, with Pope also bringing four RBIs.
Saylor Cooper and Hannah Johnson also had one run each.
Hackleburg played against the Hubbertville Lady Lions in their first game on Saturday, which the Lady Panthers won 4-0.
In the second round, the Lady Panthers defeated the Lynn She Bears for the first time 5-2.
After that, they faced the Marion County Lady Red Raiders.
The game was somewhat close until the Lady Panthers scored six runs in the top of the fourth inning, eventually winning the game 8-3.
For other Marion County teams, their first rounds began with Brilliant playing Berry and Marion County playing Phillips.
Brilliant advanced to the second round, and so did the Lady Red Raiders, pitting them against each other.
Marion County won that game, but fell to the Lady Panthers in the next.
Brilliant won it’s first loser’s bracket game against Hubbertville, but fell to Lynn in the next game.
Phillips lost to Marion County, then lost to Berry, knocking them out of the tournament.
 Marion County suffered their second loss as Lynn continued to fight for a spot in the final game.
After knocking out Berry, Brilliant and Marion County, Lynn was back in the running for the NAC tournament, but were beaten by the Lady Panthers in the final round.

WAC
FAYETTE — The Winfield Lady Pirates won the 2024 West Alabama Conference (WAC) tournament on Saturday, April 13.
The Lady Pirates didn’t enter the bracket until the second round, where they played South Lamar after the Lady Stallions beat the Fayette Tigers in the first round.
The Lady Pirates beat the Lady Stallions 3-1.
Next, the Lady Pirates were up against Sulligent, who had just defeated Lamar County.
The Lady Pirates beat the Lady Blue Devils 5-4 to advance to the final round.
Sulligent was able to fight their way back from the brink and found themselves in another game against Winfield for the final game of the tournament.
The Lady Pirates were able to defeat the Lady Devils once more 2-1 to win the tournament.
Over the weekend, Willa Simmons was named MVP for going 2-0 with zero earned runs and eight strikeouts over ten innings.
Jayci Griffin, Karrah Parr, Kenna Beth Lacy, Hanna Kimbrell and Maddie Grace Lewis were named to the all tournament team.
Griffin made three hits, and Kimrell hit a 3-run homerun.

After the NAC and WAC tournaments, teams will be competing in the area playoffs.
Winfield played the Phil Campbell Bobcats yesterday to begin the 3A Area 12 tournament at Winfield.
Marion County and Brilliant began the 1A Area 12 tournament on Monday.
Hackleburg and Phillips also began the 1A Area 14 tournament on Monday.
Hamilton won the 4A Area 11 tournament and will be headed to the regional tournament.
Coverage of those games will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal Record.