RINGGOLD, Ga. - For 12 innings of Wednesday's GHSA Class AAAA softball playoff doubleheader, Heritage outscored visiting Madison County 8-1.
It was the other two innings that ended up sealing the Lady Generals' fate as Madison swept the second-round series by identical 5-4 scores.
Heritage freshman phenom pitcher Rachel Gibson allowed only three hits in game one, but she walked four batters and her teammates committed three errors in a five-run fourth inning. It was the third inning of game two that did Heritage in as the Red Raiders had five of their 12 hits, scoring four times.
"That was the course of the night - one tough inning in each game," Heritage coach Tanner Moore said. "Other than that, we battled and scrapped and stayed in the game.
"They are a well-coached ballteam. They did all the little things you have to do to win a ballgame. They made a couple of more plays than we did tonight."
Heritage (22-10) had 3-0 leads in each game. Madi Morris had an RBI triple, with Katie Proctor and Gibson adding sacrifice flies in game one for the quick start. Madison (25-8), though, after being held to one hit in the first three innings by Gibson, took a more patient approach the second time through.
A single, a walk and a two-base error brought home the first two runs, with Lexi Jordan adding a two-run single and the fifth run scoring on another error. Heritage had just one hit against Kinley Phillips after the second inning until Mallory Lowe doubled after a leadoff walk in the seventh.
Gibson plated one run with a one-out groundout, but Bailey Christol's line drive was caught by third baseman Olivia Montgomery to end the game.
Morris had a pair of RBIs and Proctor the other as the Lady Generals led 3-0 entering the bottom of the third. However, Madison batted around against Taelyn Bates to score four runs, with Lauren Griffeth's two-run single the big blow.
Heritage rallied again in the seventh, scoring the tying run on an error, stolen base, Ansley Bice's single and a wild pitch. Bice was at third with one out after the wild pitch, but Madison pitcher Emma Strickland got the dangerous Morris to pop out and ended the inning with a Proctor groundout.
Kennedy Dixon opened the Madison seventh with a double. Moore replaced Bates with the hard-throwing Gibson, who got Griffeth to ground out, though Dixon moved to third. Gibson then unleashed a wild pitch - though the Heritage dugout believed the ball was a foul tip. Dixon scored just under the tag.
"I thought it was foul-tipped, but they didn't make the call and the ball got away," Moore said. "We had her out, but we couldn't handle the ball and she got under the tag. Tonight isn't a reflection of the whole season. To be where we were early in the season, to win a region tournament championship and be here today - I couldn't be more proud."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.