WINDSOR — Roanoke Valley U12s Head coach Sam Conner said before his teams title game versus Currituck he wanted to get the game over with as fast as possible so his girls wouldn’t have to be out in the heat so long. Well the game may have went a little longer than he liked, but the results were still what he wanted as the U12s made it four district titles for the Roanoke Valley with a, 11-3, victory.

U12 third baseman Kaley Copeland, left, tags out a Currituck base runner during the Roanoke Valley’s, 11-3, victory Sunday. Randy Wrenn | Daily Herald Advertisement

The win marks the first time four teams from the Roanoke Valley have  won the district titles in the same season.

The U12 team got stronger as the game went along and once they got rolling, Currituck was nothing but a helpless victim standing in between Roanoke Valley and their title. “Overall the girls played good,” Conner said. “We made a few errors and that shows on the score, but we kept out heads in it and the girls came through just like we expected them to do.”

During the three day tournament the Roanoke Valley U12s outscored their opponents, 31-3, and only trailed once, 2-1, to Currituck heading into the bottom of the second inning. Meredith Stephenson tied the game at two with a triple and Hayley Heath followed Stephenson with a RBI to give the squad their first lead. Roanoke Valley then scored back to back runs on passed balls to go up three, 5-2, to end the inning.

In the bottom of the third Kaley Copeland and Stephenson drove in runs with base hits and the margin grew to five. It appeared Currituck was getting weaker in the heat all the while the Roanoke Valley squad was getting stronger. Sensing that their opponent was running out of gas, Conner was very aggressive with his base runners, putting them in easy scoring positiong in an attempt to put the game away.

“It takes the other team out of the game,” Conner said. “When they see you running on them and there is nothing they can do to stop you it takes them out of their game.”

Lindsey Pulley drove in a run, Emily Conner brought in two runners and Sierra Hearp drove in the final run to secure the U12 victory.

Afterwards Conner and his coaching staff took a victory lap around the field as they players cheered them on. “Our motto is you play as a team and you win as a team,” Conner explained. “And that’s how we played.”