RINGGOLD, Ga. – Sometimes in sports all it takes to find success is for a team, no matter the level of play or sport, to believe in itself.
The Ringgold Lady Tigers found that out Wednesday in a doubleheader sweep of Woodward Academy in the first round of the GHSA Class AAA softball playoffs. The Lady Tigers fought through nerves in the first game to win 7-6, then, once the belief they belonged settled in, they routed the visitors from Region 5, 15-2 in four innings.
Ringgold (19-13) pounded out 28 hits in the two games, 14 in each, to advance to the second round, which will be played next Wednesday. They overcame four errors and five unearned runs in the first game, winning when speedy leadoff hitter Adrian Thornton turned an infield hit, error and wild pitch into the game-winning run in the sixth inning.
“I’m not sure if they were tight coming out, but the nerves did get to them,” Ringgold coach Rachel Hodge said. “But they pushed through it and did a fabulous job. In that first game, a win is a win, no matter how badly you played, and in that second game they settled down and did a great job.”
Sophomore third baseman Ericka Bynum led the hit parade with a 2-for-4 effort, including a 2-run homer, in the opener, then added three hits and five RBIs in the second-game rout. Other hot hitters were Thornton, who had five hits and scored five runs, and Ericka Burkhart, who had five hits and drove in three in the two games.
“They’re hitting the ball, and if they continue to hit like that, we’ve got a great chance to make (the Elite Eight) Columbus,” Hodge said. “The big thing with us is that we have to play hard and smart.
That wasn’t always the case in game one when, after holding a 5-1 lead into the fourth inning, Ringgold committed two errors to allow the War Eagles (15-13) to tie the game. It was tied at six in the seventh when Thornton hit a hard ground ball which Woodward pitcher Dari Richardson gloved, but her throw, which would have been late, sailed over the first baseman’s head, with Thornton reaching third. She scored moments later on a wild pitch.
Relief pitcher Brittany Portwood sat the War Eagles down in order in the seventh, the only 1-2-3 inning for the visitors.
Ringgold held just a 3-2 lead in the second game before sending 16 batters to the plate in the fourth inning, scoring 12 runs on 10 hits, including Hailey Robinson’s two-run homer and Bynum’s single, triple and four RBIs.
“We had a rough year for a while, but we’ve come together and started playing as a team,” Bynum said. “We didn’t play well that first game, but we pulled it out. I want to go to Columbus badly, and I think we can do it.”