Gordon Lee's Jordyn Hamill (4) slides home while Charlton County's Callyn Carter (12) is late with the ball during at Gordon Lee in this file photo.CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. - The Gordon Lee softball team rode some strong pitching and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Class A state playoffs with a pair of easy wins over Charlton County on Wednesday, defeating the visitors 8-0 and 19-0.
Emily Armour had a pair of pitching wins on the mound for the Lady Trojans. She struck out seven in three innings in the first game, then followed that up with nine in four innings win in the second. Megan Wolinsky relieved Armour in the both games and added eight more strikeouts, as the Lady Indians were limited to two hits in the two games combined.
The Lady Trojans scored in each of the nine innings played Wednesday, jumping out to a six-run lead after three in the first game and a seven-run lead after three in the second.
"Pitching has to be the strong point. You can be up and down as far as hitting, but we've been pretty consistent pitching this year," Gordon Lee coach Dana Mull said. "We really wanted to score in the early innings and build on it, and we were able to do that tonight."
Gordon Lee (28-5), who will play Commerce in the state tournament in Columbus next week, got two hits apiece from Tiffany Holland and Sara Holcomb in the first game. They also benefitted from some early jitters by the Lady Indians, who committed five errors in the first two innings.
Holcomb, Jordyn Hamill and Ansley Underwood each had multi-hit performances in the second game. The Lady Trojans erupted for eight runs in the fifth inning, with reserves doing all the hitting. Melissa Duran had a two-run homerun in the final inning, while Shay Wooten and Bailey Miller added doubles.
"You can see that when we went to our bench, we didn't miss a beat," Mull said. "You never know what's going to happen, and we're fortunate to have a lot of good players on this team."
Charlton County (18-12) pitching walked a total of 15 Gordon Lee batters.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6311. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.