Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Second softball season starts today

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Didn’t get off to a great start this year? It doesn’t matter. As long as you made it to this point, anything could happen. That’s what the five local high school softball teams are thinking. Today they, and all of their opponents in the state tournament, are 0-0. It’s a whole new ballgame and all that matters now is playing the best ball possible.

Class AAAAA South Sectional - Hamilton Complex, Tifton

Starr’s Mill (23-15) is the only team from Fayette County to make the AAAAA state playoffs. The Lady Panthers, ranked ninth in Class AAAAA, finished second in last week’s region 4-AAAAA tournament to East Coweta, but looked strong. They outscored their opponents 34-13 and went 2-2 in one run games in the tournament. Starr’s Mill got great peformances from their pitchers, including Jackie Jones, who went 2-1 in the final three games.

Starr’s Mill’s bats have also been heating up as the season wore along, getting heroes up and down the lineup. Players like Lindsey Walker and Lyndsey Tedford have had some big hits in recent games as have Rachel Watson, Caitlin Rosa and countless others. The Lady Panthers have tried to finish strong, having won the North Cobb tournament and placing third in the Brookwood tournament towards the end of the season.

Their opponent in the opening round of the state tournament is Redan, the three seed from Region 2-AAAAA. The Lady Raiders have been able to put up some big numbers this season, scoring 49 runs in their first three games. They closed out the regular season going 4-1 with one of their wins being a 1-0 forfeit against Tri-Cities. They lost their final regular season game 19-0 to Newton, which went undefeated in the region.

The winner of Starr’s Mill/Redan, which is set for 4 p.m. Friday, will play the winner of Groves/Coffee.

Class AAAA South Sectional - Southern Pines, Dublin

Whitewater High School and McIntosh High School placed third and fourth in region 4-AAAA, both qualifying for the AAAA state tournament. The difference is that McIntosh now has to play Greenbrier, region champs for the last nine years, while Whitewater opens with Jones County, still a formidable opponent but a little less scary than Greenbrier.

McIntosh didn’t finish the season particularly strong, going 1-2 in the region tournament and losing four in a row before that, but they did have a stretch in the middle of the season going 8-2 with seven shutouts. The team has had great success from freshman pitcher Morgan Kidd and the defense that has backed her up along the way to 10 shutouts this year.

The Lady Chiefs will have their work cut out for them on Friday at 6 p.m. Greenbrier, ranked number one in AAAA, is 25-4 with 14 shut outs this year. The team benefits from starting pitcher Kristan Glover , who has 38 strike outs in the last three games. The winner of McIntosh and Greenbrier will take on the winner of Ware County/Henry County.

Whitewater (18-13) started the season slowly with an 0-6 start but won seven of their last nine games, posting three shutouts and outscoring their opponents in those games 31-19. The team is getting solid picthcing from Danielle Dickson and Jill Keller and has had big games at the plate all year from Tess Echols, Megan Holman and Lauren Moyer.

Their opponent Friday at 4 p.m. is Jones County, which split games with Effingham County in the region tournament before falling 8-1 to Greenbrier. The two teams hooked up earlier this season with Jones County winning 3-1. The Lady Greyhounds then went 0-9-1 after that game.

The winner of Whitewater/Jones County will face the winner of Lee County/Westside-Macon.

Class A North Sectional - McDonough Road, Hampton

Our Lady of Mercy and Landmark Christian place third and fourth respectively in the Region 5-A tournament. Once again, the difference in first round opponents is significant. Landmark will take on the top ranked Georgia Military School (24-4-1) at 4 p.m., while Our Lady of Mercy will face Washington-Wilkes, a team capable of putting up some good numbers but not as fearsome as Georgia Military, at 6 p.m.

Our Lady of Mercy opened the season with an 0-6 start and then followed it up with a four game winning streak against region opponents. They closed out the season with a 4-2 record, going 3-2 in the region tourney and scoring 52 runs in those five games.

Washington-Wilkes scored 35 runs in back to back games early in the season but were also shut out twice in a week by Georgia Military towards the end of the season. The Lady Tigers are capable of capitalizing on errors so Our Lady of Mercy will need to continue playing good defense.

The winner of this game will take on the winner of Hebron Christian Academy/Bowdon.

Landmark Christian has had a strange year. At times they have hit the cover off the ball and built solid win streaks. They have scored 10 runs or more in six games but they have also had several games where they have given up over 10 points. They went 0-3 against Our Lady of Mercy and Mt. Zion, Carroll but went 3-0 against Eagle’s Landing Christian, outscoring them 31-10.

Georgia Military is ranked number one in Class A. They went undefeated in their region and have won 10 games in a row with four shutouts. In their 10 game winning streak, they ahve outscored the opposition 92-5. Landmark will have to find a way to slow down an offense that scored below seven runs once in that streak.

The winner of this game will take on the winner of Jefferson/Trion.

Visit www.thecitizennews.com for updates on the state softball tournaments.