Sandy Creek came up a little short in its run towards a state championship in softball, but its heads are held high. The Lady Patriots were probably not considered by many to be a contender for a state title, but great pitching and timely hitting brought Sandy Creek to the cusp and with only two players leaving the team to graduation, the future looks bright for Coach Lisa Pearce and her team.

The Lady Patriots opened up play in the Elite Eight with a 1-0 win over Northside, Columbus and followed it with another shutout victory, 3-0 over South Effingham. On Friday, Sandy Creek fell to Blessed Trinity 6-2, but the Lady Patriots were not done. They took on Harris County on Saturday morning and won 2-1, putting them in a rematch with Blessed Trinity in the final. Sandy Creek lost the game 2-1 and finished in second place in Class AAA.

Junior Kayla Folds appeared in five games over the course of the Elite Eight. She faced 115 batters in 30 innings and struck out 80 of them, allowing five hits and walking seven. Her ERA was 0.47. For the season, she had 209 strikeouts in 174.33 innings. She was 18-8 with a 1.07 ERA.

Junior Hannah Braswell went 9-4 this season with an ERA of 1.38, 129 strikeouts in 81.33 innings.
Other key players for Sandy Creek in the state playoffs were sophomore Kayla Awbrey, driving in a ton of winning runs during the playoffs, and senior Dani Frazier, who Pearce stated was on fire in the state tournament. Awbrey drove in 15 RBIs this season and stole seven bases. Frazier batter .291 and had two home runs and 14 RBIs this season.

Junior Meagan Sitton had a tremendous season for Sandy Creek with a .362 batting average, five RBIs and 13 stolen bases. Junior Candace Dunn had 21 RBIs, two home runs and six stolen bases. She won the second game of the state tournament with a three-run home run. Senior Megan Kallatsa had 14 RBIs and four stolen bases this season. As the third baseman, she also made 49 putouts and had 48 assists.

Whitewater made the Elite Eight in Class AAAA and went 1-2. The Lady Wildcats opened with a 2-1 loss to Marist. Tess Echols scored the only run of the game for Whitewater and Lauren Willamon broke her thumb in the sixth inning.

The Lady Wildcats bounced back with a 9-1 win over Lee County and Whitney Toler picked up the win. Whitewater then lost to Greenbrier 3-0.

Lauren Willamon played two games with a broken thumb and hit .375 for the weekend, while Jamie Saunders hit .333 and Haley Richards hit .300.
Whitney Toler had 17 strikeouts in the three games, five walks and an ERA of 0.67 for the weekend. Whitewater will only graduate two players from this year’s squad.

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