Halle Parsons belted a walk-off homer for the third time in four postseason outings as the Grant Union/Prairie City Lady Prospector softball team downed their league rivals, Weston-McEwen, 11-0 to capture their second straight 2A state softball crown on Friday, May 31, at Jane Saunders Stadium in Eugene.

Last season, the Lady Pros defeated Weston-McEwen 10-0 after six innings. This year, however, the Lady TigerScots appeared to have momentum on their side headed into the state final following a regular-season home sweep of the Lady Pros in early May.

The first inning would be an indicator of how the game would ultimately play out as pitcher Drew Williams recorded three of her game-high 11 strikeouts.

The Lady Pros went up 1-0 in the first after a Reece Jacobs ground ball brought Addy Northway across the plate.

Then, with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth, junior Skylar McKay stepped up to the plate and smashed a line drive that was too hot for Lady TigerScot center fielder Hope Barry to corral, leading to a costly error.

The Lady Pros would score three runs on the miscue to take a 4-0 lead headed into the fifth inning.

Williams and Parsons would both add RBIs in the bottom of the fifth to extend the Lady Prospector lead to 6-0 headed into the sixth inning of play.

Another RBI single by McKay and an RBI double by Northway set the stage for Parsons to trigger the mercy rule for the third time this postseason with one swing of her bat.

With Northway and Sivanna Hodge already on base, Parsons hit a high fly ball into center field that sailed over the Oregon Ducks-themed wall to give the Lady Pros an 11-0 win to the delight of her teammates and the Grant Union/Prairie City faithful who made the trek out to Eugene.

“There is a healthy rivalry between us and that Weston group,” Lady Pro head coach Zach Williams said. “I’m going to be honest, the girls just don’t like anyone thinking they’re better than them.”

Parsons led the Lady Pros in what was the senior’s final game in red and black. She went 1-3 at bat with four RBIs and the game’s decisive walk-off home run.

McKay had an efficient game, finishing a perfect 2-2 at bat with a pair of RBIs in the win.

Williams got the win in the circle along with Player of the Game honors in what was also her final appearance for the Lady Pros, allowing a mere three hits and no runs to go with her 11 strikeouts.

The Lady Pros finish the 2024 campaign with a stellar 25-4 record. Of those four losses, one was to 3A finalist Scio, two were to the Lady TigerScots and one was to 4A champion Pendleton.

Thirteen of the Lady Pro victories in 2024 were shutout wins, and six of their remaining wins saw the Lady Pros give up just a single run.

The Lady Pros’ run to the state championship was as dominant as any you’ll see. They were the only team across all classifications to not allow a single run throughout their journey to the state championship.

The Lady Pros played four games at the state tournament, outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 51-0.

“They were locked in and ready to play defense,” Williams said of his team not allowing a single run throughout the run to the state title.

“When you’re scoring runs early, it’s hard to come back — especially against a team like our girls, where whoever is playing them knows they’re heavily not favored,” Williams said. “When you just start getting beat on right away, that takes the will out of people, too.”

Williams ultimately boiled the tournament-long shutout down to good pitching and good defense while acknowledging the difficulty in holding all of their opponents scoreless.

“It’s hard to not just give up a random run on something stupid,” he said. “It’s been since May 14 since they’ve given up a run — that’s pretty cool.”

Williams was nostalgic looking back on the contributions of his seniors. Having coached the trio of Parsons, Hodge and Drew since they were 8 years old, Williams said winning a state title has been the goal of that group since those early playing days.

“It’s been the goal the while time, and they came out and did it — and kind of made it boring, honestly,” he said. “Don’t take away that there are 13 other girls on that team who worked their butts off, but for these three, it was special — they’re going to be sorely missed.”

Williams said he’d be lying if he said this year’s state title win felt any different than last year’s. Expectations were high for his team this year, and dropping a pair of games to the Lady TigerScots earlier in the season and subsequently losing the district crown added a level of urgency to the effort at state.

“Once you’re there and you’re on the top and people are out to get you, it just feels like anything less is a disappointment,” he said. “I don’t know, it would be fun to win as an underdog someday.”