Heritage rallied late to force extra innings, then used Abbie Young's homer in a two-run ninth to defeat North Oconee 4-2 in the Class AAAA winners-bracket final Friday night at the GHSA softball state tournament in Columbus.
Heritage (27-2-1), seeking its fourth title after winning three in a row from 2018-20, fell behind 2-1 when North Oconee scored two unearned runs in the third inning. Coach Megan Crawford's team drew even in the sixth on a wild pitch, but then left the bases loaded against North Oconee ace Maddie Johnson.
Heritage also left a runner at third in the eighth, but Young's line-drive homer to right field with one out in the ninth gave the Generals the lead, which grew to two on Brylee Pritchett's RBI single with two outs.
"Coach Regan Armour gave Abbie some hitting advice before her at-bat, and she hit one (to the opposite field), and then Brylee Pritchett had an unbelievable at-bat and roped a single to give us one more run," a happy Crawford said.
Heritage junior ace Addie Edwards, undaunted by the earlier unearned runs, went all nine innings, allowing one hit and striking out 16 Lady Titans. Pritchett had three hits, and Ella Blansit added a solo homer in the second inning.
"Addie pitched her guts out today," Crawford said. "This one is so important because it gives us confidence for tomorrow. I'm so proud of these girls. The job is not done, and they know that. They are ready, and they've prepared for this since we lost to Whitewater exactly one year ago."
In Class AAA, Gordon Lee will also play Saturday in search of its 12th championship after winning a pair of elimination games Friday, 7-0 over Jackson and 9-0 over Harlem. The Lady Trojans (31-4-1) face reigning state champion Wesleyan, a 2-0 loser to Hebron Christian in the winners-bracket final, in the losers-bracket final at 11 a.m. The winner will have to down Hebron twice later Saturday to get the big trophy.
Gordon Lee pitcher Sydney Garrett pitched 11 innings Friday, including seven in the first game, when she allowed three hits and struck out six batters without a walk. The Lady Trojans made it easier on Garrett with early runs in each game.
"We knew we needed to jump on teams early, and we were able to do that in both games and then trust our pitching and defense," Gordon Lee coach Dana Mull said. "It's nice to get the bats going a little and hopefully be ready to go tomorrow."
The first game started ominously for the Lady Trojans with a leadoff single and three consecutive strikeouts. They did the same thing during a 1-0 loss to Hebron on Thursday after a leadoff triple, part of a 17-strikeout game.
This time, however, they scored three runs in the second versus Jackson on RBI hits from Kaley Russell and EG Hixon and added four more in the third: one on Laney Wilson's RBI single, one on Hixon's sacrifice fly and two on wild pitches.
In the second game, Harlem made a myriad of mistakes in the top of the first as Gordon Lee scored five runs. Gracie Helton had an RBI single to get things started in the inning, which included two errors, a hit batter and a passed ball.
Garrett and Wilson combined for a no-hitter, while Hixon — who had three hits against Jackson — had three more hits and Helton and Kyliee Fryar added two.
Dade County (22-8) was eliminated in a 5-4 loss to Bacon County (23-4). Dade trailed 3-0 entering the sixth inning, but a bases-loaded walk to Lexi Lawson was followed by a run-scoring wild pitch to cut the lead to one. Riley Talley then hit a go-ahead two-run single.
Bacon County, though, responded in the bottom half on Asher Thompson's two-run homer to left-center to make it 5-4.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.