CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — It’s one thing to be undefeated and the top-ranked team in the state. It’s quite another to be the only undefeated and top-ranked team in the state and find yourself behind by four runs and down to your last out and last strike.
If Gordon Lee softball coach Dana Mull ever worried about her team’s competitiveness or comeback ability, the Lady Trojans provided positive affirmation to each by rallying from a 7-3 deficit for a an 8-7 win over visiting and ninth-ranked Mt. Pisgah in the Georgia Class A state softball tournament. Having crushed the Lady Patriots’ first-game hopes, they secured a trip to the Final Eight in Columbus with a six-inning, 13-3 win.
“We got tested,” said Mull, whose team improved to 34-0. “They have good batters and they came out swinging. It was looking bad when they were up 5-3 and then scored two more in the top of the seventh.”
Gordon Lee’s bottom of the seventh answer came in they fashion that has become a Lady Trojans trademark — pressure-treating baserunning and timely hits.”
Anna Quinn led off and reached after being hit by a pitch and Sam Taylor singled to center. Kendall Johnson advanced the runners for the first out and a pair of errors on Kelsie Bickett’s groundball led to all three runs scoring and cutting Mt. Pisgah’s lead 7-6. Holly Brooks singled up the middle, Lesslie Bohannon reached on a fielders-choice error before Lady Patriots’ pitcher Courtney Condon got the second out with a strikeout. The pressure was centered dead square on the shoulders of Jenna Nation, who stood to be the winning or losing pitcher based on the results of her bases-loaded, two-out, two-strike swing.
“I was extremely nervous when I went up to bat. I prayed for strength,” Nation said.
Her prayer was answered. She lined a two-run double past a stretching first baseman to drive in the tying and winning runs.
“When I got the hit it was the most wonderful feeling, a feeling that I had never before had,” said Nation, who earned his 19th win.
“I hope and think you saw the real Gordon Lee team in the bottom of the seventh inning,” said Mull. “We were aggressive and running the bases.”
Mull was certain Gordon Lee had not given up that many runs in any game this year, just as certain as she was that Nation’s intensity might have been a little higher for her last at-bat.
“She did well and it’s amazing that she was the one who was able to get that game-winning hit,” the coach said.
Nation struck out 10 but also gave up seven hits, “and she’s not used to that,” Mull said.
The big blow came in the top of the fifth when Morgan Walters dispatched a 2-2 tie with a three-run homer.
“The most anyone has scored on me is three runs and, yes, when they were ringing me up I got upset,” Nation admitted.
Nation got the much-wanted payback with her last-breath heroics.
The second game, while required, was anticlimactic as Gordon Lee answered a 1-0 deficit with first a 7-1 and then a 10-1 lead. The Mt. Pisgah rallied for two in the bottom of the fifth but the Lady Trojans ended the game early by scoring three in the top of the sixth and then watching as winning pitcher Kalei Kimbrell shut the Lady Patriots down for a win shortened by run rule.
The big hit was Kendall Johnson’s second-inning grand-slam, although Anna Quinn added a solo home run and later had a run-scoring triple.