Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe is staying at home but the Lady Warriors are moving on, advancing to Round 2 of Georgia’s Class AA softball playoff series by besting Temple in back-to-back games Wednesday.
It wasn’t so much a besting as it was a beating – 15-0 and 24-2 – as they crammed two games into seven innings although coach Tony Ellis replaced his starters with younger players after the second inning of the second game.
Ellis was philosophical after the victories.
“Does it help? We got to play and we got to see different pitching,” he said. “Our goal is to get back to Columbus [the state tournament] and these two games were just two steps toward that goal.”
Ellis struggled to be on his best politically-correct behavior but it was obvious that Temple was simply outclassed.
LFO had 14 hits in the first win and 13 in the second. Shorter signee Madeline Bray improved to 13-1 with a seven-strike out performance in the first-game, three-inning win and Kennesaw State-bound Monica Vickery allowed one earned run while striking out nine in four innings for her 18th victory.
“We have two quality pitchers – as good as anybody in the state – and if we can score a few runs we have a chance,” Ellis said. “We’re capable of winning against anybody and we’re capable of winning the big one but you have to get to Columbus and the finals to do that.”
The Lady Warriors won’t play against until Wednesday, Oct. 20 when they’ll host the winner of the series between Fannin County and Greater Atlanta Christian.
One they adjusted to the less-than-average pitching speeds, the Lady Warriors made short work of Temple. They scored 11 runs in the second inning and added four more in the third to end the game early.
Hayley Burnett tripled, doubled and singled, scoring two runs and knocking in two and Devan Brown added a three-run homer to lead the 15-0 win.
Playing the role of visitor in the second game, the Lady Warriors scored 15 runs in the first three innings but then gave up two in the bottom of the third to extend the game by an inning. They invoked their own version of football’s game-shortening mercy rule with another nine runs in the top of the fourth. Courtney Crawford was 2-for-2, Octavia Harris doubled and singled and picked up two RBIs and Vickery had a double and three RBIs.
The varsity players, other than Vickery, only got two at-bats before giving way to the younger players.
“We wanted to get them a taste of the postseason. They cheer and root all season. We have some good girls who are having to wait their turn,” Ellis said. “They’re good players too and a lot of them would be starting in other programs.”