Lady Blues advance after day-two sweep

GRAHAM— Strong hitting and a two-game, 13-inning performance by freshman pitcher Emma Southerland advanced the Graham High School Softball Team to the second round of the state playoffs. The Lady Blues took both games of last Friday’s playoff doubleheader, edging Sweetwater 2-1 in game one and exploding in game two for a 10-4 victory. “I was tired but I knew I could make it through it,” said Southerland, who tallied 16 strikeouts in two games. “‘My teammates would tell me ‘you can do this.’ I believed in myself and they believed in me … I believed in them wholeheartedly. I knew we were going to pull through. I knew we had it in the bag from the beginning. Even after the three-run homer, I knew we were going to pull through this.” For the rest of this story, subscribe to our print or online edition.