Benton repeats

The Benton softball team rallied for a 3-2 victory over Greene County Tech in the Class 5A state final on Sunday at the Benton Athletic Complex to become back-to-back champions.

BENTON — The wins keep coming for Heidi Cox and the Benton softball team.

The Lady Panthers were the Class 5A state champions a year ago and found themselves back in a state final with a second consecutive undefeated season in mind.

It would take nearly 20 hours to complete, but the Lady Panthers got the job done by defeating Greene County Tech 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at the Benton Athletic Complex to become back-to-back champions.

Benton (32-0) has won 64 consecutive games, dating to the beginning of the 2021 season.

With one out in the top of the fifth inning Saturday night, the final between the Eagles and Panthers was delayed by lightning. Officials waited a little more than an hour to see if conditions would improve, but the game was suspended until Sunday.

Greene County Tech (27-51) led 2-1 when the game was paused Saturday thanks to a Benton throwing error in the third inning, followed by a sacrifice fly to give the Lady Eagles the lead for the night.

It wouldn’t take long to see that Benton had found another gear from the night prior.

Benton gave Elana Scott (150) the start, but after giving up the two runs to Greene County Tech in the third, she was replaced by Alyssa Houston. She struck out three in the fourth inning before having the game paused with two base runners.

When things got going again Sunday, Houston wasted no time cleaning up the bases — striking out the next two batters.

“That set the tone immediately. When we came off [the field] we were ready to do something at the plate,” Cox said.

Despite trailing, Benton led the hit tally 6-3 before the suspension of play, and after getting those first two outs Houston knew that success against Greene County Tech pitcher Karley Burrow (19-3) would finally show up in the run column.

“It was just like, ‘Okay, now it’s our time to hit,’ ” Houston said. “We knew that we were already hitting [Burrow] and it was just a matter of time that we string the hits together.”

Benton tied the game at 2-2 on a throwing error from Greene County Tech shortstop Brielle Sage, scoring Scott.

Gracie Redmon followed that up with a single past Greene County Tech third baseman Zoie Reynolds and down the left field line to give the Lady Panthers the lead — one they wouldn’t relinquish.

Houston closed out the game for the Lady Panthers,

striking out four of the final six batters to finish with 10 in four hitless innings.

Having not lost in over two years, and in search of a second state title in a row will produce a razor-thin margin for error. Having made some uncharacteristic errors in Saturday’s portion of the game, Cox felt her team relished the opportunity to hit the reset button.

“We needed that new day and it really, really paid off for us,” Cox said. “The girls came out on fire and did what they normally do. It was just a little gut-check to say we can do this, we can overcome this.”