Calhoun one win away from third title; Heritage, Trion lose but alive

Prep Sports
Prep Sports

COLUMBUS, Ga. - Eight northwest Georgia softball teams entered South Commons Softball Complex on Thursday. Only one is undefeated.

While five teams are still alive at the GHSA Championships, only Calhoun can win a title with one win today. The Lady Yellow Jackets continued their sizzling play Friday with a 4-0 win over Morgan County and will await the Morgan/Ringgold winner in the Class AAA title round.

The two other area teams that played in winners-bracket finals, Heritage and Trion, lost. The Generals twice led Buford, including 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Samantha Thomas hit a walk-off two-run homer to send Heritage to the Class AAAA losers-bracket final. A win over Walnut Grove will get the Generals to the title round, where they would have to defeat Buford twice.

Trion lost 5-2 to two-time defending Class A public school champion Georgia Military College and will have to defeat Echols County this morning to earn a rematch.

Calhoun (34-3), which scored 26 runs in its two wins Thursday, was limited to nine hits by Morgan County pitcher Alisha Morgan, but the combination of Kinsey Liscio and Emily Mitchell was too much. The pitchers combined on a five-hitter and only once allowed a runner past second.

"Both pitchers did outstanding jobs," Calhoun coach Diane Smith said. "We didn't hit as well as I wanted us to, but we did enough to win. That was a very good ball club we just played. It is nice to win these first three games; it takes a lot of pressure off you. We're looking forward to the championship game tomorrow."

Heritage (33-5) got off to a quick start against perennial power Buford on Shayla Ludy's two-run homer. However, single runs in the fourth (on the first of Thomas' blasts) and fifth inning tied the game. The tying run was aided by a pair of Heritage errors.

The Generals, under international-tiebreaker rules, pushed across a run in the top of the eighth on Brooklynn Frazier's double. However, after the Lady Wolves sacrificed their runner to third in the bottom half, Thomas hit her game-winner just out of the reach of a leaping Olivia Tamewitz in center.

"We can talk about that last pitch all day, but the bottom line is we made four errors tonight and gave them too many opportunities they shouldn't have had," Heritage coach Jason Carter said. "I've told them all along that we're the best team in the state and the only team that can beat us is us, and we did that tonight."

Trion (29-3) also hurt itself in losing to GMC with two first-inning errors that led to three runs. Pitcher Peyton Henderson allowed just two earned runs and four hits, but the early deficit was too much to overcome despite solo homers from Rayven Lawrence and Madison Martin.

"We came out kind of tight and had two errors right off the bat," Trion coach Jason Lanham said. "That wasn't the start we wanted, but the girls showed a lot of fight. They are the champions for a reason. Our girls are going to get up bright and early, and hopefully we can get another shot at them tomorrow."

Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.

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