COLUMBUS, Ga. - The unpredictable nature of the GHSA Softball Championships was again evident Thursday as the top 56 teams in the state converged to start deciding seven titles.
Three northwest Georgia teams are two wins away from earning championships after winning a pair of games each. Heritage, after defeating Walnut Grove and West Laurens, will be in the Class AAAA winners-bracket final, while Calhoun rolled to 12-0 and 14-1 wins in Class AAA and upstart Trion is in the Class A public school title hunt.
"Last year's experience made all the difference today," said Trion coach Jason Lanham, whose team went 1-2 at Columbus a year ago. "I had a great feeling about today. We were just so different about everythimg we did today. Last year they were on a pleasure trip; this year we were on a business trip."
Two area teams, top-ranked Gordon Lee in Class AA and surprising Dalton in Class AAAAA, split games and will have to win twice today to reach Saturday's title round.
Ringgold, Sonoraville and Christian Heritage will have to fight through the losers bracket after losing their first games.
Ringgold's 9-0 loss to Central-Carroll and Gordon Lee's 1-0 defeat against Bryan County were the most surprising.
Ringgold, last season's AAA runner-up, lost ace pitcher Abby McKinney in the fourth inning of a scoreless game after she was hit by a line drive on her pitching hand. Central scored all nine of its runs in the inning after McKinney left.
"We had a good game going until Abby was hit," said Lady Tigers coach Shane Pendley, who noted that McKinney is likely to play today. "We just couldn't recover after that."
Gordon Lee, after winning 12-2 in its first game behind Emily Armour's 13-strikeout two-hitter, managed only one hit against Bryan, which scored an unearned run in the seventh inning to put the Lady Trojans into the losers bracket.
"When you get down here, everybody is good and you have to make plays to win," Gordon Lee coach Dana Mull said. "We have the team to come back, and now we have to go out and prove it."
Class AAAAA
Dalton scored two runs in the fifth inning on Olivia Whaley's two-out single to rally past Heritage of Conyers in its first game, 3-2. Alli Swinford allowed one earned run and two hits to get the win. Freshman outfielder Lauren Paker helped save the game by throwing out the potential tying run at the plate in the sixth inning.
The Lady Catamounts (24-12) fell victim to University of Tennessee recruit Ashley Morgan in game two. The Chapel Hill lefty pitched a four-hitter in a 4-0 win and added a pair of hits and two RBIs. Swinford allowed six hits in suffering the loss.
Class AAAA
Heritage (33-4) had to rally to defeat Walnut Grove 4-2 in game one. Raleigh Lewis had a homer and Sydney Smith an RBI double in the comeback and pitcher Taelyn Bates, after surrendering a two-run homer in the third inning, shut Walnut Grove down on two hits the rest of the way.
In a 5-3 game two win, Shayla Ludy homered among three hits and Brooklynn Frazier added a pair of hits in support of Madison Morris, who earned the win, and Bates, who recorded the save.
"Everybody contributed in some way today," said Heritage coach Jason Carter, whose team will play Buford today. "We had several key hits, moved runners and made defensive plays when we had to."
Class AAA
Calhoun, like its rival Ringgold, received a major scare Thursday when one of its top players, Emily Mitchell, was hit with a pitch. The outcome, however, was quite different. Mitchell, after X-rays proved negative, started and won game two on a combined no-hitter and hit a home run in a 14-1 win over Blessed Trinity.
The Lady Yellow Jackets (33-3) started their day with a five-inning 12-0 win over East Jackson, with Jana Johns getting a grand slam and another hit and Chloe Rice and Ryan Brzozoski getting three hits each. In game two, which went just four frames, Allie Jones and Ashlyn Barnes had three hits each and Johns added a pair of hits and two RBIs.
Surprising Sonoraville, the third team from Region 6-AAA, lost a 6-3, 10-inning heartbreaker to Morgan County.
Class A
Trion already has clinched its best fastpitch finish in program history, but coach Jason Lanham insists there's no complacency.
"We're going to be around for Championship Saturday and we've already clinched at least third place," Lanham said. "They didn't come here to finish third, though."
The Lady Bulldogs (29-2) opened with a 5-4 win over Emmanuel County Institute and followed with a 7-2 win over a Baconton Charter team that had lost just two games coming in. Kiki Evans and Shayla Youngblood had two hits in each game and keyed the top of the order that produced early runs in both games.
Peyton Henderson and Lindsey Shepherd combined to limit ECI to five hits in game one, while Shepherd went the distance in game two, allowing just four hits and striking out seven. Shepherd also drove in two runs in the first win, and Kerrigan Ramsey had three hits in game two, including a three-run inside-the-park homer in the second inning.
Trion will face two-time defending champion Georgia Military College in today's winners-bracket final.
On the private school side, Christian Heritage fell to Eagle's Landing Christian Academy, 4-3 in eight innings. The Lady Lions play Straford Academy this morning in an elimination game.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.