Houston Co. Bears start softball Elite 8 2-0

For the third time under coach Angela Crawford, Houston County High softball enjoyed a perfect 2-0 opening day of GHSA AAAAA Elite 8 softball play.

On Thursday at Columbus’ South Commons Complex, the Bears – bringing quite a few home runs from their 2015 season – used singles, singles and more singles to blitz past Allatoona High 6-1. That was after needing Emily Simmons’ sixth-inning hit to plate the go-ahead and game-winning run of the opening contest against a hometown club, Northside High-Columbus, the final 3-2.

Senior Sarah Smith pitched a three-hitter with four strikeouts facing the Allatoona Pirates from Cobb County. She not only had an RBI single in this winning effort, but also the single that got the winning rally going early vs. Northside’s Patriots.

Four different Bears had multiple hits on Allatoona for a grand total of 12. It all started in the first inning with – one out showing – Madi Slappey, Amber Coy and Caitlin Davis all singled one after the other. Davis’ hit brought in the first run. With two outs, designated player Shaelin Browne singled for 2-0.

Slappey led off the third with her second hit, and Smith – following Coy’s sacrifice – singled her in with two outs. Browne produced her second RBI hit in as many at-bats making it 4-0.

Autumn Ring led off the fourth with a single and scored on an error. In the fifth, Grace Hardee delivered with two outs after Ring reached on yet another error.

Pitching, Smith gave up one hit over the first three frames, and then a home run in the fourth. In that same inning, Allatoona left two runners on base.

Houston County played some defense Thursday in Columbus, turning a double play with Coy at third base and Taylor Peebles at second in the sixth.

It was in the game with Northside-Col. that Houston County used the throwing arms as well as the bats. Ring, the shortstop, threw out a runner at home in the bottom of the first. Then in the second, the left fielder Hardee caught a ball and threw out a runner trying to score in one motion.

The Bears scored one in the top of the second using two bunts and a wild pitch. They added one in the third as Slappey scored on a Davis single.

The Patriots tied the game in the bottom half, a turn beginning with an error and featuring three hits.

Smith’s infield single led off the sixth. Megan Whitaker ran the bases and scored on Simmons’ one-out safety. Just like the Allatoona game, all of the Houston hits (10) were singles.

Northside left seven runners on base while Smith scattered nine hits and walked only one.

The Bears’ next opponent – at 7 p.m. Friday – was set to be Chapel Hill, a team that shut out both Greenbrier and Dalton on Thursday. The winner there is only one victory away from taking the 5A softball crown.

WARHAWKS

Back-to-back home runs from the Buford High bats in the bottom of the first inning was all it took to send Veterans High into Friday’s loser’s bracket of Class AAAA. Buford, as much a state power in softball as it is in football, used the two solo long balls to win 2-0.

The home runs came with two outs. Veterans senior pitcher Avery Lamb proceeded to fan the next 12 hitters she faced. That string ended when Buford led off the bottom of the fifth with a base hit. But then Lamb would retire the side in order.

Buford also had two baserunners – who were left stranded – in the sixth, and Lamb pitched a perfect seventh. She fanned 10 in the game and walked only one.

In their respective opening games of the Elite 8 in Columbus, both Buford and Veterans won by a single run. It was Buford surviving Wayne County 2-1 while the Warhawks had a long tussle with North Oconee that wasn’t decided until the sixth.

The Region 2-AAAA champions didn’t have a hit off North Oconee pitching until that sixth frame, and getting things going on the first pitch she saw was Lamb herself. Lindsey Cauley took her first delivery for strike No. 1, then singled to keep the rally alive. Alexis Cortez did the baserunning for Lamb, and she scored the lone run of the contest when Sarah Wilkerson – after taking the first strike – singled to left.

In the circle, Lamb had five strikeouts – all in the first six innings – and set down 11 of North Oconee’s batters consecutively in one stretch. That was broken up in the seventh, and there were back-to-back singles for the team in a potential walk-off situation. But Cauley – as she did two other times that day – snagged a line drive at first base. This one she made into a game-ending double play.

Lamb also left two runners in scoring position in the first inning and two in the third en route to the 1-0 victory. There were only two Warhawk baserunners in all for the first five innings.

On Friday, Veterans had a 3 p.m. loser’s bracket game scheduled with either Worth County or Walnut Grove High. The winner would then have a game at 7 to remain in the championship field and play on Saturday.

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