COLUMBUS, Ga. - With one big swing of her bat, Jana Johns not only helped win a state softball championship, she also earned a new toy.
The Calhoun High School third baseman's fourth-inning grand slam was part of a 4-for-4, 5-RBI performance that propelled the Lady Yellow Jackets past Ringgold, 12-7, in the GHSA Class AAA state final Saturday. The meeting was the seventh between the two Region 6 rivals and followed a 12-10 Ringgold win Saturday.
"It took a lot of runs and a lot of hits, and that says a lot about our region," Calhoun coach Diane Smith said. "Ringgold is a very good ball team and so are we. We had the bats going all day."
Calhoun (34-8), the Class AA state champion in 2013, rapped out 17 hits in the 2014 title win. With the Lady Jackets ahead 2-1 in the fourth inning, Johns came to the plate with the bases loaded after Ringgold intentionally walked Taylor Kelly, who had hit three home runs in the previous game. Johns made them pay with a deep shot over the center-field fence.
"I just wanted to do it for Taylor because they walked her every time," said Johns, who was told before the game by her mom that she would get a new iPhone 6 if she hit a grand slam. "Yeah, I get a new iPhone 6, but that's not the big thing. Winning our second title in a row is what matters."
Ringgold (35-9) cut the lead to 6-3 in the bottom half on freshman Kalyee Womack's two-run homer, but the Jackets scored twice in the fifth and three more times in the sixth to make it 11-3. However, the Lady Tigers scored four runs on two-run hits by Taylor Chadwick and Aimie Davidson and had runners on third and second bases when Kayla Woody's line drive was caught by Johns to end the threat.
"It means everything to win back-to-back titles," said Calhoun's Kelly, who drove in six runs in the first-game loss. "My team fought so hard for us, and we came out and did it. I knew we had it even after we lost the first one. We just had to let that one go and clean up a few things."
Ringgold pushed it to the maximum with a late rally in game one. With the Lady Tigers trailing 9-8 in the seventh, Chadwick hit a one-out grand slam to force the extra game. Kayla Woody had hit a three-run homer in the fifth after Calhoun built an 8-4 lead.
"We have the heart of a champion, but we came up just a bit short," Ringgold coach Shane Pendley said. "It would have been easy to let up down 11-3, but that's not the way this team plays, and if those two line drives we had in back-to-back innings had gotten through it's a different game.
"Give Calhoun credit for doing what they had to do. We're not graduating anybody, so our goal is to get back to this game next year."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.