Botetourt Nationals held off late rallies in both of their games, as they claimed the District 3 Dixie Angels All-Stars softball title Wednesday night with an exciting 8-7 victory over Christiansburg in the Championship game. Botetourt Nationals advanced to the title game with a 4-3 win against Blacksburg in the elimination game earlier in the evening.

Botetourt Nationals 8, Christiansburg 7 (Championship Game)

With bases loaded and two outs, Botetourt Nationals managed to get the final out when Kelsey Hall popped up to the first baseman, to preserved a thrilling 8-7 win against Christiansburg.

Trailing 8-5 heading into the bottom of the fifth, hits by Christiansburg Jesse Burleson, Sarah St. Jean, Emily Hoover, Sydney Jackson and a two-out walk by Emma Odell, allowed Christiansburg to plate a pair of runs and cut its deficit to 8-7. With the bases loaded, Hall would pop up a 3-2 count to the first baseman to end the game.

Botetourt Nationals would use an error, hits by Tiffany Green, Hannah Nelms, Brittany Crawford and walks to Lauren Mayhew, Michaela Tolley, Katie Farris and Emily Walker to jump out to 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

Christiansburg would score once in the bottom of the first when Hall led off with a walk and later scored on a hit by Burleson to make it 5-1.

Botetourt tacked on another run in the top of the second to increase its advantage to 6-1.

Botetourt National would score twice in the top of the fourth when Green walked, Nelms walked, Crawford reached on an error and Mayhew got a hit to give Botetourt an 8-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, Christiansburg would use hit by Burleson, a walk to Hoover, Alyssa Dickerson would reach on an error, a hit by Jackson, Emily Handy, a walk by Odell, a hit by Hall, a walk to Haley Moore and a hit by Campbell to score four times and pull to within three, 8-5.

Botetourt National would go down in order in the top of the fifth, thus setting up the exciting ending.

Botetourt National 4, Blacksburg 3

In the elimination game, Botetourt would hold off a fourth inning rally by Blacksburg, to claim a 4-3 victory and move on to the championship game.

Botetourt would take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, on three-straight walks to Abby Spangler, Alexis Borovich and Green.

In the third inning, Riley Sartorius was hit by a pitch, Spangler was hit by a pitch, Borovich had a hit and Crawford added a hit to up the Botetourt lead to 4-0.

Blacksburg would come to life in the top of the fourth. Walks to Kaitlyn Henze and Iris Flad, followed by Adelyn Noble being hit by a pitch, a hit by Mara Isaacson, a walk by by Meghan Perfater, and Robyn Mann would allow Blacksburg to pull to within one, 4-3.

Botetourt would shut down Blacksburg in the top of the fifth, as they held on for the 4-3 victory and advance to the championship game.

Botetourt American won the Sportsmanship Trophy.

Click here to see additional photos from these games in our Photo Gallery.

Photos: (Top) Botetourt Nationals pose with their hardware after claiming the District 3, Dixie Angels Softball title Wednesday night against Christiansburg. (Right) Christiansburg is all smiles, as they accepted the runner-up trophy. (Bottom Left) Blacksburg's Emma Seylor (#5) looks for her pitch during the elimination game against Botetourt National. (Photos by David Grimes)