CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — As far as concerns go on a high school sports team, the one confronting Dana Mull is the best type to have.
The Gordon Lee softball coach with 11 GHSA state championships simply has too many good players for all of them to appear in every game, so she counts on the team concept shining through and her talented athletes making the most of their moments.
One name Mull pencils into the lineup every day, though, is Gracie Helton. The senior showed why Wednesday as she broke out of a mini slump with a pair of two-run homers as Gordon Lee defeated former region rival LaFayette 6-2.
“She’s been struggling a little bit at the plate,” Mull said. “We talked yesterday, and she said she was ready for this one. We had that rivalry for two years with them, and the girls were hyped for this game. Today it was the same old Gracie. She sometimes tries to do too much, but today she sat back and waited on pitches to hit and didn’t miss them.”
Helton didn’t wait long to get going Wednesday when, after Tenslee Wilson walked with one out in the bottom of the first inning, she drilled her first two-run shot off LaFayette ace Olivia Free. Gordon Lee (8-1) added a pair of runs in the third when Laney Wilson, who had a strong night in the circle, helped herself with a two-run double.