LENOIR — Something happened to Bandys this week the team had been searching for all season — all the pieces finally came together.

    And senior Olivia Huffman finally learned how to squash a bumblebee.

    Huffman had a key two-run single in the fourth, and Carlee Carpenter pitched a complete-game with six strikeouts Thursday as the Trojans topped host Hibriten 5-2 en route to their second straight Catawba Valley Athletic Conference softball tournament championship.

    "It finally came into our heads that we could do it, that we were good enough," Huffman said. "This whole season, we've thought, 'hey, we were good last year, but, maybe we don't have to work as hard.'

    "We finally saw that, if we work together, we can win the games. We've finally learned how everything clicks together. Everybody's just been clicking this week."

    And clicking they have.

    The Trojans defeated Maiden 5-3 on Monday, then found themselves in a 13-7 hole against regular-season champion Fred T. Foard in Tuesday's semifinals. But eight runs and three extra innings later, they were headed to the conference tournament championship, and on Thursday, they won it. "It feels great," sophomore Emily Bowman said. "We've won (the conference tournament) both years (I've played) and I want to win them all four years.

    "If we keep pushing it like we have," she said, "I think we'll be fine. We just wanted to turn it around and take back our trophy that we got last year."

    Huffman's two-run single in the fourth gave Bandys a 5-0 lead, and was her 11th hit in three games. For the tournament, she hit .733 (11-for-15), and according to head coach Mike Carpenter, raised her average at least 100 points.

    But the plate wasn't so kind to her prior to this week.

    "I've been in a hitting slump all year, basically," Huffman said. She said a parent of one of the players told her to "use a technique called the bumblebee." Huffman said in this technique, you hold your back foot down like you're trapping a bee, and that gives you more power through the hips. "And it seemed to work," she said.

    Huffman, while trapping that bee, was 2-for-4 on Monday, 6-for-7 on Tuesday and 3-for-4 on Thursday, hitting singles in her first three at-bats. "She's the one that's made a difference for us this week," head coach Mike Carpenter said. "She's put us over the top."

    Another one that put Bandys over the top was pitcher Carlee Carpenter. She threw a total of 18 1/3 innings this week, won all three games, and held Hibriten scoreless through six innings Thursday.

    The only offense the Panthers could muster was two runs in the seventh. Sarah Bentley reached on a one-out single, and moved to third on Kayla Brown's double to the wall. Bentley then scored on a throwing error, and Chelsea Thomas, who was 2-for-2, drove in Brown with a single. But Carpenter got Kristen Oakes to go down swinging to end the game.

    Bandys scored two in the third to take a 3-0 lead. Megan Smith drove in Carpenter, who led off with a single, on an RBI groundout to third. Macie Lovette followed with an RBI single that scored Kendra Honeycutt, who reached on an error. Huffman's two-run single in the fourth scored Liz Goodwin and Carpenter, who both reached on walks. "They've listened and they've worked hard," coach Carpenter said. "They've done everything I could have asked of them. I'm proud of them."

    Carpenter scored two runs and had two hits. Honeycutt scored two runs. Smith had a hit and an RBI. Ashlyn Pope struck out five in the loss.

    Bandys will be at home on Tuesday in the first round of the state 2A West playoffs, with its opponent to be determined.