JACKSON COUNTY SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT: Pisgah ends Jackson County championship drought
Eagles win their 15th softball county title
Story by Jason Bowen
For the first 14 times the fastpitch version of the Jackson County Softball Tournament was played, the result was the same — Pisgah hoisting the county title trophy.
But the Eagles lost their grip on the crown in 2022 when North Jackson became the second school to win the title, and after the Chiefs repeated in 2023, Skyline became the third different school to win a county softball championship last season.
Pisgah coach Chloe Womack said the county-title drought was something the 2025 Eagles were determined to end, a mission they accomplished Friday night.
Pisgah held off North Jackson for an 8-6 championship finals victory at Pisgah High School’s Duncan Field, claiming the program’s 15th all-time fastpitch Jackson County championship.
Pisgah won every county tournament played from 2006-2021 — the Jackson County Softball Tournament was not played in 2011 due to the April 27 tornadoes and in 2020 because of COVID-19.
The Eagles went 4-0 during the 2025 tournament, besting Section and Skyline in the first two rounds last Wednesday before defeating North Jackson twice on Friday, including 3-1 in the winners bracket final.
“Feels good to get (the championship) back home,” Womack said. “I know (the players are) extremely proud to get it back and I’m extremely proud of them, too.”
Womack credited the Eagles’ timely hitting “as a difference maker” in the tournament.
“We knew our defense was going to back up our pitcher, whoever was in the circle,” she said. “Being able to hit and come through in the game when we need to was big.”
In the championship final, played under a 90-minute time limit, Pisgah (7-4) took a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, getting a bases-loaded walk from Emma Sisk before Julianne Davis hit a three-run double and scored on the play when a throw to try to get her out as she retreated to second base went into the outfield.
“That was a very big hit,” Womack said. “(Davis has) been in a slump, and that’s what she needed. That was big play for her and us.”
Pisgah upped its lead to 6-0 in the second when UAB signee Madeline Flammia homered to center field, but the Chiefs pulled within 6-4 in the top of the third thanks to RBI sacrifice flies from Ally Ferguson and Peyton Malley and RBI singles from Alley Benson and Darcy McClendon. Pisgah increased its lead to 8-6 in the fifth when Sisk and Davis singled before scoring when Rylan Lawson reached on an error.
North Jackson, needing a win to force the “if necessary winner-take-all championship game,” pulled to within 8-6 in the top of the sixth when Josie McClendon and Brook Cloud singled and doubled respectively and scored on Kinley Burton’s two-run double. But Pisgah seventh-grade pitcher Lori Jones got a strikeout to end the game in the sixth inning (time limit reached).
Jones picked up the win in the circle after pitching the final 3 2/3 innings in relief and allowing two runs on five hits while recording three strikeouts.
At the plate, Davis (three RBIs) and Brinley Chisenall both went 2-for-3 for the Eagles while Flammia, Sisk, Briley Caperton and Rylan Lawson had one hit each.
Burton closed 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Cloud and Josie McClendon also went 2-for-3 for North Jackson while Benson and Darcy McClendon had one hit each.
“This is a young group and we fought hard,” said North Jackson coach Caleb Wynne. “I’m proud of the fight in them.”
