Title time: The Gretna Hawks take Group A softball championship

By Matt Fuchs
Danville Register & Bee
Published: June 9, 2008

RADFORD — With teammates closing in on her from all parts of the Radford University field, and even more hopping the low wall of their dugout to join the mob, Teresa Dalton’s traditionally stoic composure on the mound finally broke.

It was seconds after Dalton recorded the final strikeout of the season and of her high school career in a Gretna uniform, and even for a pitcher who prides herself on keeping her emotions to herself this was too much to bear. Red-faced from the sun, the effort and her sudden upwelling of feelings, Dalton could do little but cry as her teammates swarmed toward her, ready to celebrate.

With that strikeout, Dalton had just finished off the Gretna Hawks’ first softball state championship, a 2-0 victory over Glenvar, in the Group A playoffs on Saturday. She struck out 13 in her final effort as a Hawk, while allowing only two hits. And she had also worked out of a near-impossible jam in the middle innings to preserve the shutout. Between that, and with all that the accomplishment meant for Gretna’s six seniors, Dalton had no choice but to cry. It was the only thing she could manage to do at that moment.

“It was just everything … I’m going to cry again…” Dalton said trying to recall the moment afterward. Then, through fresh sobs she continued: “I’ll never forget it. The six of us have been together since JV. For us to come this far and do this together is amazing.”

Years spent as an afterthought in the Piedmont and Dogwood districts and an 11-10 finish last season made Gretna’s run through this year’s playoffs as unlikely as they come. Yet, with a special team bond, sound defense, often stellar pitching and the occasional stroke of luck, these Hawks (21-4) found themselves in a position that no other Grenta High School softball team had seen in some 27 years. They had a chance to win a state title.

“All season you work to get this far,” Dalton said. “But then you get here and it’s like, did we really do that?

“It’s crazy.”

Oddly enough, so too was the performance that Dalton and the Hawks put up against the Glenvar Highlanders (22-6) on Saturday.

Dalton, for one, was ready to play right out of the gate. She struck out nine of 11 Highlanders to start the game, helping the Hawks to gloss over two early fielding errors and giving them the opportunity to take the lead with just a touch of offense in the fourth inning.

Up until the fourth, Glenvar starting pitcher Meredith Buckley had also been stellar — granting the Hawks only one base runner to that point. And even that lone runner had only come on a walk at that.

But a bit of advice from Gretna’s resident hitting guru changed that in the top of the fourth, as assistant coach Warren Mills urged the Hawks to start crowding the plate in the hopes of taking away the inside fastball that Buckley had been using as her bread and butter.

It worked like a charm.

Warren’s daughter Nicole led off the top of the fourth with a hard double to left field, and a sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly later she was coming home for a 1-0 lead.

“You had to really have quick hands to get to the ball. (Buckley) was hitting her spots very well,” Nicole said. “It was a fastball on the outside corner. It was just what I wanted and I took a go.”

The Hawks held that lead through a wild bottom of the fourth that saw Glenvar runners reach second base and third base without an out on the board thanks to two more errors, only to have Dalton work her way out of the jam unscathed — retiring the next three batters in a variety of ways.

“She knew she wanted to get her job done,” Brooks said of Dalton. “She moved her pitches well and relied on her defense.

“She didn’t give up on her defense, even after all the errors.”

Out of trouble, the Hawks tacked on an insurance run in the top of the sixth as speedy Ceseley Haynes scored from third on a passed ball for a 2-0 edge. A lead that Dalton went right back to protecting with four more strikeouts over the final two innings. The last of which left the Hawks swarming a teary-eyed Dalton on the mound.

It was the Hawks’ first state championship in a female sport since their volleyball team brought one home in 1993. And it came in Gretna’s first trip back to the state finals in 27 years. Gretna assistant coach Robin Dalton, who was a member on the last Hawks team to play for a ring, reflected on the title afterward — saying that it took a special team to get what she had missed out on all those years ago.

“It’s really sweet. It brings back a lot of memories, but I’m glad they didn’t get the results we did,” Robin said. “They just bonded so well. It’s hard to have a high school team come together like that.

“I think it’s really going to build our program. It will bring more attention to it. It makes the kids believe more … that they can have something like this.”