VINEMONT, Ala. – On Tuesday afternoon at the Vinemont Sports Complex, fifth-seeded Good Hope met sixth-seed West Point in the 2026 Cullman County Tournament championship game. The Lady Raiders and Lady Warriors, who faced off in last year’s title game, gave fans a show and sent their aces out to start, with Molly Benefield and Kara Jones going head-to-head.
On the way to throwing a complete game one-hitter with eight strikeouts, Benefield was the recipient of three runs to support her outing and eventually seal a 3-0 county championship win, Good Hope’s third straight.
A sign of things to come, the game started off with Benefield going three up, three down including a strikeout of West Point’s Alissa Stephenson. While Lizzie Steed knocked a ball into the outfield to lead off the game for Good Hope, Jones went on to earn three straight outs to keep the Raiders off the board.
In the title game of a tournament dominated by pitching, this game followed suit. It took until the bottom of the third for a team to threaten to score, with Good Hope getting three straight singles from Steed, Kylee Smith and Campbell Koch to load the bases. While keeping the Warriors off the plate on defense, Benefield gave herself some breathing room and opened scoring with a sac-fly that scored Steed. The next batter, Carlee Trammell, drove in another with an infield single to make it a 2-0 Lady Raider lead.
After two scoreless frames, Good Hope found momentum again as Steed led off the fifth with another single to left field. After an error and a grounder let her make it to third, Steed touched home plate again on a Smith groundout.
The rest of the game, Benefield and the Raiders played a successful game of keep-away, blanking the Lady Warriors and sealing the victory on a Jones groundout to spark the celebration.
The final stat line for Benefield was 7.0 innings pitched, one hit, zero runs and eight strikeouts. Jones threw for six innings, giving up nine hits and three runs while striking out three Lady Raiders.
Leading Good Hope at the plate was their catcher, Steed, who ended the game 3-3 and scoring two of the Lady Raiders three runs.
Benefield, Steed, Koch, Smith and Trammell were all named to the All-Tournament team. The full list can be found below.
2026 ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
- Maggie Nail, Holly Pond
- Lilly Adamson, Holly Pond
- Jocelyn Barnett, Fairview
- Kayleigh Hill, Fairview
- Tori Vines, Vinemont
- Bryleigh Basinger, Vinemont
- Peyton Kennedy, Cold Springs
- Kaydance Williams, Cold Springs
- Cheyenne Bishop, Cold Springs
- Isabella Spinks, Hanceville
- Kynzlee Farr, Hanceville
- Makayla Butler, Hanceville
- Kara Jones, West Point
- Bai McSwain, West Point
- Averee Folds, West Point
- Mylee Echols, West Point
- Molly Benefield, Good Hope
- Lizzy Steed, Good Hope
- Campbell Koch, Good Hope
- Kylee Smith, Good Hope
- Carlee Trammell, Good Hope
