Lady Jackets sweep LFO to advance to region championship series.
The Calhoun Lady Jackets team earned a sweep in a home doubleheader on Saturday against LakeviewFort Oglethorpe in the second round of the Region 6-AAA playoffs. Calhoun will move on and face Ringgold in the region championship seris on Wednesday.
The No. 1 seed (from the South subregion) Lady Jackets (29-1) won the first and second game against the LFO in impressive fashion. They won the first game 10-0 in five innings, and then fol- lowed that up with an 11-0 victory in five innings also. The success of Calhoun was due in large part to an offensive explosion.
Calhoun coach Diane Smith commented on her team’s brilliant offensive performance in the two games,
“Well, we hit the ball today, which we’ve been doing, but not as well as I wanted us to,” said Smith. “It took us a little while to get started, but in that second game in the fourth inning, we scored seven runs in that one inning. (Our batters) looked good.”
In Game 1, Calhoun’s offense came out hot as the Lady Jackets scored five runs in the first two innings. They were held scoreless in the third by LFO but scored five more runs in the last two innings, including a threerun homer by Erin Barnes to end the game via mercy rule at 10-0 in the bottom of the fifth.
Barnes finished the game going 2-for-3 with a run, a stolen base and the aforementioned home run. Three other Lady Jackets had multi-hit games -- Ashlyn Barnes was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run, Jana Johns batted 2-for2 with an RBI and a run and Carlie Henderson also went 2-for-2 with two runs scored.
The play of the defense and the effort of Calhoun’s pitcher were excellent as well. Torri Gaddis had an outstanding game in the circle as she threw a no-hitter and had four strikeouts. The only offensive success by LFO (1613) was when Gaddis walked a Lady Warrior batter.
Domination from Calhoun summed up the second game as well. The Lady Jackets could not get much done in their half of the first inning offensively but broke out in the second as they scored four runs.
Then in the fourth, the Calhoun batters went on a scoring tear as they notched seven runs and eight hits in an inning, which included three home runs.
Erin Barnes was again the big offensive player of the game as she went 3-for-3 and scored two runs. Other notable Calhoun batters from the game were Carlie Henderson (2-for-3 with two runs and a stolen base), Cassie Henderson (2-for-3 with a homer and a run), Ashlyn Barnes (2-for-4 with two runs), Ryan Brzozski (2-for-3 with two stolen bases) and pinch- hitter Maddie Bumgardner (2-for-2 with a home run and a stolen base).
Kayla Watson was the pitcher for the entire mercy-ruled, five inning game and had a solid afternoon. She gave up only three hits, had two strikeouts and walked a batter in a shutout victory for the Lady Jackets.
Coach Smith said she was impressed by the play of her pitching staff as well as her defense,
“My two pitchers pitched well,” said Smith. “The defense was there.”
There won’t be a lot of time for Calhoun to rest now as they play Ringgold in the region championship series on Wednesday. The series will start with a doubleheader on Wednesday starting at 5 p.m. If a Game 3 is necessary, it will be played on Thursday.
Smith said she and her players have the right mindset with that important game in front of her team, which will be going for their fifth straight region title.
“We’re just waiting on the next game,” said Smith.