The area’s top-ranked high school softball team, Lee-Davis, had runners on first and second base with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning Wednesday evening.

No. 3 Patrick Henry was up a run.

A year ago when Lee-Davis finished as the state runner-up, the Confederates had pulled out a couple of regular-season victories with last-inning rallies.

The Confederates hadn’t needed a rally in their 15 victories this season. The second out had come on a well-struck ball hit directly at PH left fielder Ellen Davidson, a sophomore.

Taylor Melton then stroked Emma Mitchell’s third pitch solidly toward the gap in left-center field. The ball had some air on it. Davidson took off from left field. Center fielder Shanley O’Day moved quickly toward left.

Davidson, who said she kind of had a bead on the ball, takes over the story from here: “I kind of stuck my glove out there and prayed it went in.”

The ball stuck in the glove at waist level as Davidson and O’Day avoided colliding and preserved the Patriots’ 1-0 nondistrict victory.

“I thought Taylor had a good shot. It was great play, and (Davidson) made it happen,” Lee-Davis coach Jackie Davis said.

The catch capped a sterling effort by the Patriots.

“They were the better team tonight,” Davis said. “I think we took it for granted we were 15-0, and (PH) came in hyped up and ready to play.”

Lee-Davis pitcher Kelly Heinz and Mitchell were superb. Each team managed just two hits. Heinz struck out 11 and walked one. Mitchell logged seven strikeouts and two walks.

“Emma doesn’t throw as hard as (Heinz or Thomas Dale’s Lacey Waldrop), but tonight she threw a gem. She kept people off balance and moved the ball around really well,” Patrick Henry coach Matt Crowder said.

The Patriots scored in the top of the fourth with only four batters going to the plate. Madison Gilman sent a sinking line drive toward the right-field line for a double.

L-D’s Rachel Houff dove for the ball but missed. A throwing error by second baseman Ryleigh Hawker on the relay allowed Gilman to get to third. Gilman scored on a wild pitch, and Heinz got the next three batters out.

Mitchell never lost her placid demeanor on the mound.

“Obviously, it’s a lot of pressure, but you just have to stay calm,” she said, “and I knew my defense would pull through.”

Arthur Utley is a staff writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch.

P. Henry 0001000—120
Lee-Davis 000 000 0—021
Mitchell and Gilman; Heinz and Cottrell
Records: Patrick Henry 14-1; Lee-Davis 15-1