Four of the seven northwest Georgia teams that advanced to the GHSA fastpitch softball state tournament in Columbus will play on championship Saturday, with three of them two victories away from winning it all.
Dade County and Heritage won in walk-off fashion in Classes AA and AAAA, respectively, while Sonoraville rode another masterpiece from ace Taylor Long to reach the winners bracket final in AAA. Gordon Lee, which lost its opener Thursday in Class A public, won twice Friday to stay alive but will need four more victories Saturday to add to its record 11 overall titles.
Calhoun, Chattooga and Northwest Whitfield were eliminated Friday with a second loss.
CLASS AA
Dade County 10, Bremen 6: Ali Thompson’s grand slam capped a six-run rally in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Lady Wolverines (28-3-1) to the mid-morning win. Olivia Tierce started the seventh-inning scoring with a two-run homer for two of her three RBIs in the game.
“Playing at 9 a.m., you never know how the team is going to be, but they were determined from the start,” Dade County coach Stephen Graham said. “We fought all game long back and forth with Bremen, and when we went down two, they never gave up.
“The bottom of our lineup really came through for us. Our No. 6 hitter, Olivia Tierce, who has never hit a home run, comes up and blasts a two run shot. Then my seven, eight and nine batters all get on with two hits and a walk. My leadoff, Ali Thompson, is normally my two-hole batter but no one is throwing to her, so I moved her to leadoff. They didn’t have anywhere to put her, and she hits a grand slam to win the game.”
Thompson finished with three hits, four RBIs and two runs, with Kami Counts adding two hits and two runs and Kaitlyn Stinnett two hits, an RBI and run for Dade, which will face Heard County at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the winner going to the title round.
Lovett 8, Chattooga 2: Veteran coach Jeff Bennett, who has announced his retirement, saw his career end as the Lions used a three-run homer from Ava Vinci and two RBIs from Ana Gore to pull away in the elimination game. Ally Coy had three hits and Clara Wyatt two for Chattooga (20-7).
CLASS AAAA
Heritage 9, Flowery Branch 8: The Generals (23-3) trailed 8-7 entering the bottom of the seventh after Flowery Branch’s Makela Davis hit a two-run homer, but Zoe Wright tied it with an RBI single, and three batters later, Riley KoKinda singled the winning run home.
Wright led Heritage’s 17-hit attack with four, with KoKinda, Lexi Duckett and Macie Collins each adding three. The Generals will face Region 7 rival Central-Carroll (32-2) in the winners bracket final at 11 a.m.
North Oconee 9, Northwest Whitfield 6: The Lady Bruins were eliminated despite rallying for four runs in the sixth to make it close. Kylie Hayes had three hits and three RBIs, and Torrey Cummings added two hits and scored twice for Northwest (21-11). Kendall Wells keyed an eight-run fourth inning for North Oconee (24-12) with a three-run homer.
Staff file photo by Robin Rudd / Sonoraville pitcher Taylor Long has kept her team on right side of back-to-back 1-0 games at the GHSA Class AAA state tournament in Columbus.CLASS AAA
Sonoraville 1, Appling County 0: Long, after pitching a one-hit shutout in Thursday’s opener, no-hit Appling with 15 strikeouts Friday. The Phoenix (27-5) scored in the second inning on Olivia Hopper’s homer, one of two hits for the winners, who will face Harlem at 9 a.m. in the winners bracket final.
CLASS A PUBLIC
Gordon Lee 12, Screven County 0: Relegated to the losers bracket Thursday, the Lady Trojans stayed alive as Sidney Garrett pitched a four-inning one-hitter and Lillian McCullough, Emma Phillips and Tenslee Wilson had three hits each.
Gordon Lee 2, Lanier County 0: Emma Langston made two first-inning runs hold up, but she had to squelch a seventh-inning rally to do so. Chloee Fryar, who had two hits and two stolen bases, scored the first run on an error and Allie Farrow followed with an RBI single. Lanier had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh before Langston struck out the final two batters to seal the team’s second straight win.
Gordon Lee will face Social Circle at 9 a.m. in the losers bracket.
CLASS AAAAA
Woodland-Bartow 5, Calhoun 4: The season ended for the Lady Yellow Jackets (21-15) despite a pair of solo homers by Espee Reyes and two doubles and an RBI from Emma Rogers. For the winners, Dylynn Motes hit a homer and Michiah Hicks and Cassie Jones had two hits each.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.