COLUMBUS, GA (WRBL) – The Northside Patriots softball team captured their second state championship in five years. They did it by defeating the top teams in the Elite 8 tournament.

Absolutely. I’m just truly blessed to be part of this. You know, we have a program that’s built its way up the last few years and have had a lot of success. And this year we were senior heavy. We had seven seniors and they stepped up and led us to another state championship and just did a great job leading the way.

Brandon Jenkins, Northside Head Coach

Now, Northside won the championship the hard way. They defeated the number one, number two and number three seeds in the Elite Eight.

Oh, there’s no doubt. We went into it, and we knew we had to run through the gauntlet. Our bracket. We had to beat number three seed to start off with. We knocked them off, then we played the number one seed and beat them. And then played Harris County, who was the three seed, and then had to come back and beat the number one seed again in the state championship. So, we definitely had our work cut out for us.

Brandon Jenkins, Northside Head Coach

Now what does the future hold for Northside Softball? Well, they had several seniors on this year’s championship team. But they had a lot of young players who really stepped up and make a difference. That should make for a strong team for next season.

Again, we were senior heavy, but we have a lot of girls that we’re able to get a lot of experience on the field this year. Our pitcher’s a, only a sophomore, Abby Lovell. She’s coming back and then we have three or four sophomores and freshmen that stepped up and played a lot this year. And so, we’ll still have some experience coming back next year and looking forward to it.

Brandon Jenkins, Northside Head Coach