COLUMBUS, Ga. - Maddie Bumgardner did her best Kirk Gibson impersonation Friday night at the GHSA softball state championships. In the process, she may have written a chapter in the Calhoun history book that will be hard to top.
The senior first baseman has missed most of the season with an illness that sometimes, especially with stress, causes her to have seizures. Bumgardner hit a pair of home runs Friday in the Class AAA winners-bracket final against Worth County, first helping to cut what was a four-run deficit to one and later providing the winning runs with a three-run homer in the eighth inning of a memorable 8-5 win.
"That was awesome," Calhoun coach Diane Smith said. "Maddie hasn't been playing for me most of the season, but she really came through tonight. It wasn't just her bat. She kept the girls fired up all game, and she didn't want to miss that last at-bat."
After her first homer of the game, a two-run shot to left field in the sixth, Bumgardner had to be helped off after getting shaky at first base. It appeared her night was over, but after Carlie Henderson tied the game with a two-out RBI single in the seventh, Bumgardner hit in her usual spot with two runners on to start the extra inning and lined a pitch well over the fence in center.
In the Class A public bracket, Gordon Lee joined Calhoun in the championship round after getting past Mount Zion-Carroll, 5-1. The Lady Trojans (31-3) and Lady Yellow Jackets (29-8) will play this morning at 9 in a schedule that has been revised by the GHSA due to a forecast of inclement weather.
As a result, the losers-bracket finals in all classes, originally set for this morning, were played late Friday and unavailable at the Times Free Press's deadline. Visit ghsa.net for updated brackets.
Gordon Lee does know any team it plays today will be familiar. Region 6 foes Mount Zion and Trion were scheduled to start around 11 Friday night, with the winner getting another shot at the Lady Trojans.
The Class AAA losers bracket was even more behind schedule, with Bremen and Cook not taking the field until 10 in the semifinal round. Worth County was set to play that winner, a game that was projected to start around midnight.
If the championship round is not completed today, the GHSA has mandated that the team in each classification that went undefeated in Columbus will host the title game, along with an "if necessary" game to follow, on Monday.
Gordon Lee's win was not nearly as dramatic as Calhoun's, though Mount Zion did hold a 1-0 lead after Emily Phillips' leadoff home run in the fourth inning. The Lady Trojans tied it in the bottom half on Gracey Kruse's homer and took the lead on Katherine Grace McElhaney's RBI bunt single.
The lead was 3-1 in the sixth when Mount Zion's Phillips, with a runner on, hit a deep fly that was caught at the fence by left fielder Regan Thompson. Gordon Lee added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom half, which included Faith Alexander's RBI single.
Mount Zion loaded the bases in the seventh, but Canaan Burnette got a strikeout and foul popout to end it.
"Mount Zion has been on fire lately," Gordon Lee coach Dana Mull said. "They've seen us and we've seen them a lot, so you just never know. I like playing other teams that don't know us as much, but sometimes it happens and that shows how strong our region is. It can be good and bad.
"We don't want to get away from our game plan just because they know us. We started kind of slow, but we settled in and got the job done."
Trion, after being sent to the losers bracket by Gordon Lee on Thursday night, rebounded Friday with wins over Bowdon, 4-0, and Georgia Military College, 12-6.
Northwest Whitfield was eliminated in the Class AAAA competition after a 9-3 loss to Madison County.
Class AAA's Sonoraville, after winning one game Friday, was eliminated after a 6-5 loss to Bremen.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.