By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – Spring Garden senior pitcher Avery Steward turned in two of her most dominating performances of the 2025 softball season on Tuesday in the Class 1A, Area 12 softball tournament.
The Lady Panthers offense made sure she had plenty of run support as well.
Steward allowed a single run on a total of three hits combined in seven innings in a 16-1 win over Coosa Christian in four innings and a 15-0 decision over Jacksonville Christian in three innings. The wins secured No. 9 Spring Garden’s second straight area softball title and 10th out of the last 11 years, minus the COVID season of 2020.
The Lady Panthers once again clinched a berth in the East Regional at Albertville’s Sand Mountain Park. They will open regional play next Wednesday at 9 a.m. against the Area 14 runner-up.
And, as is tradition at Spring Garden following their last game at home, the seniors removed their banners from the outfield fence following the area championship game. Steward is one of seven seniors the Lady Panthers have this year. The others are Rylie Ham, Helena Ingram, Layla Ingram, Maggie Jarrett, Olivia Law and Lilly McCain.
“I’m super proud,” Steward said. “We’ve been playing together since we were little, and it’s been real fun. We got to have senior night on our field, but this is the real senior night, getting to host area and now we’re getting to go to regionals.
“We have the same (championship) standard in every sport. We’ve just got to carry that over now.”
Spring Garden coach Ann Welsh said this year’s seniors have “been fun to coach and they’re hard workers” who “expect to win every time they play.”
She’s hoping they’ll help carry the Lady Panthers to another state tournament appearance.
“It’ll be a challenge when we go up there (to Albertville) against the people we’re going to have to face,” Welsh said. “We’ve seen some of them throughout the year and played a couple of them. We kind of know where we need to be.
“I felt like our mindset was better in this tournament than it has been in a while. We were more focused, and I hope we carry that over to next week. It’s only going to get harder. It’s win or go home now.”
In the area championship game against Jacksonville Christian, the Lady Panthers walked it off in the bottom of the third inning after sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring nine runs.
Layla Ingram went 2-for-3 at the plate with a run and two RBIs. Law was 2-for-2 with two runs.
Addie Word delivered a triple, two runs and two RBIs. McCain doubled, walked, scored a run and had a RBI.
Steward added a hit with two walks and three runs. Helena Ingram collected a hit, a walk, two runs and two RBIs. Kylie Bates contributed a hit, a run and two RBIs. Jarrett posted a hit and scored twice. Ham had a hit, a run and a RBI.
Steward allowed just one hit to lead off the game, a single to right by Sophie Williams. Mollie Mullinax followed with a walk, but Steward was unflappable from there. She finished with five strikeouts.
“I think during the game I started to warm up a little bit,” Steward said. “My defense did great tonight too. We scored nine runs in that last inning with two outs, so we definitely had the bats rolling too.”
In the win over Coosa Christian earlier on Tuesday, Layla Ingram led the Lady Panthers at the plate with a 3-for-3 performance with a walk, two runs and a RBI. Helena Ingram went 2-for-2 with a triple, a double, two walks, three runs and two RBIs. Jarrett was 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBIs. Ham had a pair of doubles, a run and a RBI. McCain blasted a home run to go along with a walk, two runs and two RBIs.
Steward added a hit with two runs and a RBI. Word went 1-for-3 with two runs. Bates walked, scored a run and had a RBI. Law walked and scored a run. Lleyton Carroll also scored a run.
Steward earned the win after tossing all four innings. She gave up an earned run on a pair of hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
“Everything from this season up until now doesn’t really matter anymore,” Steward said. “Everybody is even. Anybody can win it. Anybody can surprise anybody. The regional is going to be tough, but we can do it.”
