RINGGOLD, Ga. - Dealing with adversity has been the recent theme surrounding the Heritage High School softball team, and Thursday night's start to the Region 6-AAAA tournament was no different.
The Generals swept visiting Southeast Whitfield, 9-0 and 14-6, to advance to the region semifinal round, but after the relatively easy first game they found themselves in a sudden fight in game two. After building a 6-0 lead in their first at-bat, the Generals watched the Lady Raiders score the next six runs before pulling away with four runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings.
"We made some mistakes in that second game, and we didn't play very cleverly," Heritage coach Jason Carter said. "Winning 9-0 in the first game and starting the second game 6-0, you feel like you've got it tucked away. However, give them credit for fighting back. They are scrappy and they play hard. Still, we let them hang around, and in that second game they believed they could win it."
Heritage (18-8) qualifies for the state playoffs with the sweep and will host either Northwest Whitfield or Pickens in Monday's semifinal round. Top-seeded Ridgeland will host either LaFayette or Gilmer in the other semifinal best-of-three series.
Heritage rolled in game one behind the two-hit pitching of Taelyn Bates and three hits and three RBIs from Ansley Bice. The Generals took advantage of three Southeast errors to score three runs in the first inning, then put the game away with two in the fifth on RBIs from Katie Proctor and Reagan Armour.
The defense was also strong, anchored by new shortstop Bice, who is replacing Sydney Smith. The senior injured her knee in Saturday's game against Ringgold and will miss the rest of the season. That leaves two starters from last season's top-four team.
"Sydney has been a mainstay for us and has played great shortstop while hitting in the middle of the order," said Carter, who recently returned to the dugout after the death of his daughter in an automobile accident early this month. "These girls are strong, and we need to string a few good games together to start playing like we can.
"If we don't play any better than we did the second game, we'll be playing for third place next week."
Proctor got things going in game two with a bases-clearing triple, the first of two three-baggers for the sophomore, with Sarah Dye and Madi Morris adding RBI hits for the quick 6-0 lead. Southeast responded with four in the bottom half, with Lindsey Shelton's two-run double the big hit in an inning started with a pair of walks.
Sydney Swantic's RBI double made it a one-run game in the fourth, and Shelton tied it one batter later with a run-scoring single. Heritage reliever Ashley Faulkenberry got out of further trouble and the Generals made her a winner with four runs in the fifth on Morgan Parris' two-run single and an error in the outfield that allowed Parris to circle the bases.
Parris and Morris had three hits each in game two, with Proctor adding four RBIs to lead the Heritage 16-hit attack.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.