Grace Academy pitcher Courtney Patrick kept her infield busy in Friday’s District 5-A tournament softball final at the Tyner recreation complex. Her outfield might as well have had the day off.

Silverdale Baptist got three balls out of the infield, including the two hits Patrick allowed, as Grace’s Lady Golden Eagles earned a third consecutive district championship with a 3-0 victory.

Grace (22-6) will host Sale Creek at 7 p.m. in one of Monday’s Region 3 semifinals. District 6 champion Whitwell will host Silverdale (15-10).

Patrick registered nine groundouts through the first five innings Friday. She struck out the side in the seventh, giving her nine strikeouts in the game. She walked one batter.

“Courtney has been strong for us all year,” Grace coach Tina Walker said. “She steps up when I need her to. She had her curveball working, and she has a great changeup. She doesn’t show it. It kept the batters off stride.”

The Lady Golden Eagles also had a difficult time trying to solve Lady Seahawks pitcher Kelsey Dishroon, especially after she gave up hits to the first two batters. Erica Elleman’s, the second of those, barely got out away from home plate. Kaitlyn Eldridge’s sacrifice fly made it 1-0, and Elleman ended up scoring on an error.

Lacye Walker had led off by lining a double into the left-field corner.

The only other hit Dishroon allowed was Patrick’s infield single starting the bottom of the third inning. She moved around on a wild pitch and passed ball and ended up scoring on an error when Elleman knocked the ball from the glove of a defender trying to tag her for the third out.

“I’m very concerned about our offense,” Coach Walker said. “We’re getting a hit here, a hit there, but we’re not getting the big hit. We’ll be working on that in practice this weekend. We’ll have to have some big hits Monday.”

Dishroon had four strikeouts. She walked two starting the fourth inning but worked out of that thanks to third baseman Amanda Patterson’s reaction on a two-out bunt along the baseline with runners at third and second.

Patterson had one of Silverdale’s hits and also handled a difficult chance for the first out in the bottom of the sixth. All came after she took a glancing blow off the ear from a thrown ball when Elleman scored in the first inning.

“We’ve closed the gap as far as defense over the long haul,” Silverdale coach Chip Liner said. “We’ve not been able to score runs. They’ve got pretty good pitching. They’re the best team in our district, maybe in our region.

“I’m happy with our girls. I’m proud of them. They’ve shown a lot of improvement. I wouldn’t want to be coaching any other team.”