COLUMBUS, Ga. – Heritage, Ringgold and Trion brought home some hardware from the GHSA Softball Championships, just not the pieces of metal they hoped to haul away.
Heritage lost 5-3 to Walnut Grove in the Class AAAA losers-bracket final, settling for third place. Ringgold fell in the same round in Class AAA to Morgan County, while Trion finished as the Class A public school runner-up after defeating Echols County 9-0 and losing 4-2 to three-peat champion Georgia Military College Prep.
Though Trion’s Lady Bulldogs (30-4) had just completed a record-setting season with their best finish, coach Jason Lanham was nevertheless disappointed for his players.
“It didn’t end exactly like we wanted to, but they had a tremendous season,” he said. “What I love about this team is we never quit. We stumbled again in the first inning against GMC and I think they thought they were going to run us off the field, but we had the winning run at the plate at the end and you can’t ask for more than that.”
A slow start cost Trion for the second time against GMC after the champs put together three hits in the first inning to score all their runs, with Taylor Long’s two-out, two-run double the big blow. Trion starter Peyton Henderson allowed only four hits the rest of the way, but GMC ace Sarah Margaret Mason was even better with a four-hitter.
Trion, however, rallied in the seventh on Lindsey Shepherd’s two-run homer, a two-out walk and an infield single by Jaden Morrison. Mason, though, got the last out on a called third strike to end the game.
The script was similar for Heritage. The Generals (33-6) trailed 3-0 before they batted after Walnut Grove had four consecutive hits to start the game, with Kayla Pointer and Kylee Love getting big RBI hits. Heritage rallied in the second on run-scoring singles by Hannah Wills and Krissy Prewitt.
The deficit was 5-2 entering the seventh with two on and two out when Ali Roberts’ ground shot hit Ludy in the foot headed for second base to end the game.
“It’s a perfect-storm kind of thing in their favor,” Heritage coach Jason Carter said of the ending. “It’s not Shayla’s fault; she was just hustling. It just happened to be the final out. Walnut Grove is a heck of a team, and if we’re going to get beat I’m glad it was a team that good.
“I just hate it because we have a phenomenal group of girls. These five seniors feel like family to me, and it hurts for them because we felt short of our goal. They are phenomenal athletes and even better leaders, so next year it will be tough to replace those girls.”
If mistakes hurt Trion and Heritage, they killed Ringgold in its 7-5 loss to Morgan County. The Lady Tigers (29-7), forced into the losers bracket after falling in their first game Thursday, were leading 2-0 in the fourth inning when five errors and Alishia Frierson’s two-run homer led to a disastrous six-run inning.
Ringgold starting pitcher Abby McKinney allowed only three hits.
“We had one bad inning, the same thing that happened on the first day,” Ringgold coach Shane Pendley said. “They were a good team and did a lot of god things, but we gave them several of those runs.
“The girls battled, and they’re worn out today, but we just didn’t execute. We had a great season, even though you never want to end a season on a loss. Third place is very nice, but not when you had higher goals.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.