PILOT MOUNTAIN — Another Northwest 1A conference softball tournament, another title for East Surry, as the Cardinals kept West Wilkes at bay 8-2 Thursday to claim their seventh consecutive tournament crown.

One swing of the bat all but crushed the Blackhawks hopes for an upset, with senior Paige Honeycutt knocking a grand slam homerun in the bottom of the first inning to put the Cards up for good at 4-1.

After West Wilkes went up 1-0 in the top of the first off a hit and an error by the Cards defense, East battled back in the bottom half of the inning, putting the first three batters on base and in turn forcing the Blackhawks to pitch to the reigning conference player of the year in Honeycutt.

East Surry coach Derrick Hill said Honeycutt’s blast couldn’t have been bigger in the win.

“Typically in ball games like this the team that scores first is the one that is going to win the ball game,” Hill said. “There is no doubt in my mind all the wind went out of that (West Wilkes’) dugout when that happened. Paige may look bad in situations where the game is not on the line, but if you put her in a situation where we need a big hit, more times than not she is going to get it.”

Continuing the homerun theme the Cardinals started earlier this week with their 15-run win over Elkin, Courtney Simmons jacked her second homerun of the tournament in the bottom of the second to put the Cardinals up 6-1.

After a shaky start East pitcher Hayley Shelton settled down to shut down the Blackhawks bats and set up the close out by Anna Mitchell.

West managed one more run in the bottom of the seventh but it was too little, way too late, with the Cardinals celebrating a tournament title yet again, this time on their home field.

As has been the trend over the past three games, Courtney Simmons led the way offensively for the Cardinals. She finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored a homerun and three RBIs. Honeycutt followed ending her night 1-for-3 with two runs, a homerun and four RBIs, and also picked up tournament MVP honors.

Hill said the conference tournament title is just one achievement among many goals the Cardinals have set for this season.

”We go into every year trying to set goals and with the exception of one or two years we’ve been able set many goals throughout the season,” Hill said. “Obviously the next one is to win Tuesday and on through the playoffs. We feel like if we can get to Raleigh we’ve got as good a chance anybody to win down there. We have some good teams that we will have to deal with in the playoffs but that is our goal.”

After losing much of its nucleus from last season’s state championship squad, expectations may have been down (outside of Pilot Mountain) for this season’s Cardinal team.

Hill said he thinks his team has defied expectations and is starting to jell and perform at just the right time.

“I really, really like the way this team has come together and the way we are playing right now,” he said. “The last two nights it’s been Courtney and Paige and the upperclassmen, but for the most part we’ve had kids up and down the lineup get big hits all season. I don’t know if anybody expected us to be 23-2 right now.”

As for the Cardinals themselves, Honeycutt said she and her teammates know what it takes to win a state title and are looking forward to bearing down for another playoff run.

“We are very focused,” Honeycutt said. “Counting down till game time. That’s the way we did it last year and worked, so we are going to try to do the same thing this year.”

East will host Chatham Central Tuesday at 6 p.m.

All-Tournament Team

After the game, the Northwest 1A all-tournament team was announced, capped by East Surry’s Paige Honeycutt being named the tournament’s most valuable player.

East Surry’s Beth Isaacs, Courtney Simmons and Kayla Goins joined Honeycutt on the all-tournament team.

Anna Litschke (East Wilkes), Samantha Baker (South Stokes), Taylor Parker (West Wilkes), Anna Blackburn (West Wilkes) and Danielle Hardy (West Wilkes) rounded out the remainder of the 2009 Northwest 1A Conference softball all-tournament team.

East Surry 8,

West Wilkes 2

West Wilkes 100 000 1 — 2 5 3

East Surry 421 001 x — 8 5 3

WP: Hayley Shelton; LP: Danielle Handy

2B: WW — Carrie Shelar

HR: ES — Paige Honeycutt, Courtney Simmons