COLUMBUS, Ga. — There are many stories of athletic teams having the talent and the motivation to achieve the ultimate goal only to fall short.
For the Heritage High School softball team, however, its openly discussed "mission" of winning the GHSA Class AAAA championship seemed to never really be in doubt.
The Generals capped an undefeated postseason with a 10-2 win over Wayne County on Saturday -- thanks in large part to senior Harper Carstens' two home runs and six RBIs -- to capture their fourth state championship at the South Commons Softball Complex.
"They have bought into what we've been preaching since the summer, and that's easier said than done," said Heritage coach Megan Crawford, whose team outscored its opponents 26-4 in Columbus over four games in as many days. "They've gotten in the weight room and they've lived in the batting cage and they've just worked hard to get this, and it showed with the results this weekend."
Gordon Lee's run at a 12th state title fell short after a late rally against Wesleyan in the Class AAA losers-bracket final came up a run shy in a 4-3 loss.
Heritage (28-3-1), which won its first three AAAA titles in succession from 2018-20, secured its fourth state championship with a quick start over Wayne County, which had eliminated North Oconee 9-5 in the losers-bracket final earlier Saturday.
As the more rested team, Heritage wasted no time fulfilling its championship goal, scoring two runs in the first inning and four more in the third to give ace Addie Edwards more than enough support.
Freshman Brylee Pritchett started the bottom of the first with a solo homer, with Macie Collins driving in another run on a sacrifice fly. The Yellow Jackets (26-10), though, tied the game with solo runs in the second and third innings before Carstens started her personal wrecking service.
Pritchett, who had three hits and two RBIs and scored three runs, started the Generals' half of the third inning by reaching on an error, with Bailee Hollis following with a single before Carstens unloaded to left field for a 5-2 lead. She hit her second three-run homer in the next inning to make it 8-2, and when Pritchett hit an RBI single in the fifth, the game was over and the celebration began.
"Harper is an unbelievable kid and she deserves every bit of this," Crawford said. "She's worked her tail off for four years and she's done everything we have asked of her — even today she was in the cage and working.
"Our bats have been hot for two weeks, and it's just our go-all-in mentality that prevailed. We had great at-bats and did what we needed to do all weekend."
Wayne County would have needed to defeat Heritage twice to win the double-elimination tournament, but the Generals never gave their opponent that second chance.
Staff file photo by Matt Hamilton / Heritage senior Harper Carstens blasted two homers and drove in six runs as the Generals beat Wayne County 10-2 in five innings to win GHSA Class AAAA softball championship Saturday in Columbus.Meanwhile, Gordon Lee (31-5-1) and Wesleyan were scoreless after five innings as the Lady Trojans' Sydney Garrett and Wesleyan ace Macey Cintron matched zeroes. Gordon Lee, though, had several opportunities to take control of the game, leaving runners on second and third in the second and fourth innings.
Wesleyan took a 1-0 lead on Cintron's solo homer in the sixth, then added three more runs to seemingly put the game away in the seventh, when the big hit was a two-run single by Chekka Salmieri.
The Lady Trojans never quit, however, getting a walk, an error and then a single by Katey Russell to load the bases with no one out in the bottom half. EG Hixon then reached on an error, scoring one run, but a possible second run was cut down at the plate.
Tenslee Wilson walked and Gracie Helton delivered a two-run single to pull Gordon Lee within one. Wilson, though, was caught trying to steal third, and the game ended on Kyliee Fryar's lineout to third.
Wesleyan went on to win the championship with 1-0 and 8-5 victories against Hebron Christian — which sent Gordon Lee into the losers bracket with a 1-0 win Thursday — in the title matchup. It's the fifth championship for the Atlanta-area program and the third straight, although the first came in Class A private.
Gordon Lee ran its title count to 11 by winning six in a row from 2015-20, the latter five in Class A public, but the Lady Trojans lost a title matchup in that classification in 2021 and were eliminated with a loss in the AAA losers-bracket final a year ago.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.