TUNNEL HILL, Ga. – Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe coach Tony Ellis coined a phrase a few years back that has made the rounds in softball circles recently and certainly applies to the seven northwest Georgia schools entering postseason play Wednesday.
“I don’t want a bunch of Miss Augusts. I want Miss Octobers,” Ellis’ saying goes, and it has nothing to do with beauty pageants or calendar photos. “I want my girls playing their best softball in October when it counts the most.”
While the top-seeded Lady Warriors (Class AA, 29-1), Heritage Generals (Class AAA, 27-4) and Gordon Lee Lady Trojans (Class A top-ranked, 30-0) have been on their games since the season started, two programs have searched long and hard for their Miss Octobers and found them in the nick of time.
As late as mid-September, Northwest Whitfield, last year’s Class AAAA third-place state finisher, was languishing with a .500 record. However, seven wins in their last eight games, including back-to-back 2-0 wins over third-ranked Woodland in the 7-AAAA tournament, have the Lady Bruins believing a return trip to the Elite Eight in Columbus is possible.
“We’re still very young, with five freshmen, four sophomores and a junior starting, but we’ve really started to play well recently,” said Northwest coach Shane Ramsey, whose team opens at South Paulding (17-11) in a doubleheader start to a best-of-three series. “We finally started hitting the ball, and Emily [Boyd, the ace pitcher] has been as dominant as any time I’ve ever seen her.”
Boyd, the Best of Preps North Georgia Player of the Year as a freshman, took some time to adjust to the longer 43-foot pitching distance this year, Ramsey said, but has thrown four shutouts in the past month, including a 14-strikeout gem against Woodland last week.
Also peaking at the right time is Ringgold (17-13), which hosts Woodward Academy (15-11) in the Class AAA first round. The Lady Tigers, another young squad, won nine of their final 10 games and were surprise runners-up to Heritage in the 6-AAA tournament. Rachel Hodge’s team has one senior and relies heavily on the hot bats of sophomore Ericka Bynum and junior Ericka Burkhart.
“The difference is we really started hitting it late in the season,” said Hodge, whose team scored five or more runs in seven of the last nine games. “Our pitching has also improved, and we’re running the bases well. Let’s hope it continues.”
In other openers (all doubleheaders Wednesday with if-necessary games Thursday), Heritage hosts North Springs (9-13) in Class AAA; LFO hosts Temple (9-18), Dade County (22-12) hosts Manchester (9-15) and Calhoun (22-9) travels to Heard County (19-6) in AA; and Gordon Lee hosts Hebron Christian (12-11) in A.