They’d been so close a couple times.
The runner-up in 2025. The runner-up in 2018. A few other state tournament appearances over the last decade.
Now, the Saraland High School softball program is no longer the bridesmaid. The Spartans won the program’s first state championship Tuesday night, rallying from the loser’s bracket to win three games, including two straight over Helena to avenge last year’s state championship loss.
Saraland proved early on that it was for real, and carried that momentum all the way through a 48-8-2 campaign.
The state tournament MVP was pitcher Myleigh Dobbins, a player you can’t help but admire. After helping the Spartans earn a 3-1 win in eight innings against Helena, she sat at 32.1 innings pitched over two days. But asked if she wanted the ball one more time for the final game of her career, she never wavered. She took to the circle yet again and threw a shutout.
Dobbins has been a steady star for Saraland for five years, quietly going about her business for several years before emerging as a fierce competitor who inspired confidence in her teammates behind her simply by the look in her eyes in the circle.
That is no more obvious than the play that literally saved the season for the Spartans. In the bottom of the seventh inning in the first game of the final series, Bryleigh Goff made a diving catch to end the inning and prevent Helena from scoring the winning run. That momentum sparked the Spartans to two runs in the eighth and the victory.
That championship series was an opportunity for the other seniors to shine. After Dobbins threw 6.2 brilliant innings, Sunnycalb made a pitching change. Dobbins handed Laken Bryan the ball, gave her a big embrace, and Bryan got the final out to cap off the best moment in Spartans’ history.
Over the two wins against Helena, Jadyn Byrd was big time. She went 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI in game one, and followed that up with a double, a home run and three RBIs in the second game.
Lillie Roberts caught the ball in right field for the final out, and second baseman Mallory Brown was the first to greet her.
The Spartans are a rarity in this day. Head coach Donna Sunnycalb has had Chelsea Randle and Kaylyn Ingram Ray right by her side for several years. In an era where players and coaches hop from one spot to the next at a moment’s notice, they’ve built something special at Saraland.
It’s not always the team you necessarily expect. The teams with Bree Green, Karsen Mosley, Cam McLemore, Katie Head, Elizabeth Franklin, Carleigh Bowden, Brinkley Goff, Taylor Heaton, Bre Hughes, Gracie Dees (the list goes on and on and on) could easily have been the ones to get it done. And they were close.
While they may not have tangibly gotten a blue map for their teams, their teams paved the way and continued to build upon a tremendous foundation of success.
For a program that deserves it, hopefully they enjoy their moment atop the mountain.