Grace Academy’s Class A sectional at home Friday turned out to be about as unconventional a high school softball game as anyone might see. But played in conventional style or not, the Lady Golden Eagles don’t care. They’re going to their first state tournament.

Led by Lacye Walker’s pitching and the mere threat of her hitting, Grace defeated Gordonsville 5-0 and will join seven other Class A teams in the Spring Fling next week at Murfreesboro.

Grace coach Tina Walker exclaimed she was about to pass out after the afternoon game. The beaming sunshine all game could’ve been a factor. Likely it was from the fervor all around.

“I’m so excited that we finally made it to the state tournament,” Coach Walker said. “We’ve had opportunities to play for it before, but everything just didn’t come together. I couldn’t be more proud of the girls. We’re a young team. We’ve got five freshmen that play. I don’t know if they know what they’ve done yet. Maybe they will once we get into the state tournament. It may be even afterward.”

Among the odd occurrences, three of the Lady Golden Eagles’ runs scored on grounders to infielders who threw the ball home but not in time to get the out. They scored twice in the third inning without getting a hit, taking advantage of two errors by one player on the same play.

The coach’s daughter’s reputation at the plate must have made its way to Gordonsville. She had already homered twice this week — the second providing the winning margin against Whitwell in the Region 3 final.

To go along with the nontraditional spelling of Lacye, perhaps her last name should be spelled ‘Walk-her.’ In the regular season, district rival Silverdale Baptist tried the strategy of her putting her on no matter what the situation and held Grace (31-7-2) to one run but lost.

Presumably the two walks she was issued Friday were intentional, since catcher Kelsey Grisham stood and extended her bare hand as a target outside the strike zone for each pitch. However, adding to the oddities of the day, pitcher Courtney Maynard actually threw two pitches across the plate during the first one, which came with two out and the bases empty.

The Lady Tigers had to pitch to Walker with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth. They got her on a weak groundout, but it drove in a run. She doubled last time up.

“They’re telling me to be patient and when I see a good pitch go after it,” the younger Walker said.

Nothing distracted her from her work in the pitching circle. She had a no-hitter through five innings before giving up an infield hit each in the sixth and seventh. One reached on an error, she walked two and she totaled 12 strikeouts.

“We’ll have to hit in Murfreesboro,” Coach Walker said. “Everybody needs to be hitting. We’ve got pitching. We’ve got defense. We’ve got to make the most of our opportunities when we bat.”