Incredible region title streak
Only one thing has been able to stop the roll Calhoun Lady Jackets Tennis has been on over the last decade plus, and that was Covid-19. But after the end of the season was canceled due to the pandemic in 2020, there was no way the Lady Jackets were going to let their incredible region title streak come to an end in 2021.
The Calhoun Girls continued their impressive program tradition on Wednesday afternoon by defeating Cartersville in the 7-AAAAA Tournament Finals at Dellinger Park to earn their 14th straight region championship.
The Lady Jackets (15-3) defeated Cartersville 3-1 in the match to claim the first-place trophy by getting wins at No. 2 and No. 3 singles by Emma Gallman and Ivy Tate, respectively, and at No. 2 doubles by the team of Ruby Christian and Zoey Talley.
Calhoun head coach Lynn Davis said there were a lot of unknowns going into this season with the Lady Jackets moving up to Class AAAAA, but her team simply wasn’t going to be denied and that showed through their work ethic all season.
The Alabama commit got the tough-luck no decision, but Ingle came in and picked up right where Banks left off, tossing two innings of scoreless, hitless relief and striking out five of his own to earn the win.
“You look at those two seniors on the mound for us today,” said Henderson. “We knew our pitching was going to do what they had to do to hold (Woodland) off. It was just going to come down to us capitalizing on one of our chances at the plate. We didn’t hit the ball very well tonight, but we fought and hung in there and gave ourselves a chance. The opportunities were few and
far between offensively for us, but that one in the 11th was our biggest one, and we were able to get the big hit when we needed it.”
Calhoun’s offense was kept off balance by a solid combined performance by a pair of Woodland pitchers as well. Wildcats’ starter Carter Heath went six innings and didn’t allow a run while giving up just three hits and striking out six. Peyton Posey came on in relief and went 4 2-3 innings as he suffered the tough-luck loss, giving up one unearned run on two hits while striking out one.
Along with the Saunders’ brothers big hits in the 11th, the Calhoun offense also got hits in the win from Morton, Kris Sutton and Christopher Lewis. Jackets’ senior Parker Lester also reached base twice on walks.
The lone hits for Woodland came from Posey, Chase Carson and Drew Billings. The Wildcats’ best scoring chance came in the ninth when they advanced a runner to third, but Banks got out of the inning undamaged with a huge strikeout to end the threat.
Henderson said Tuesday’s win was another positive step his team could take as they wind down the regular season and get ready for the playoffs.
“It’s another region game and another opportunity to go out and play quality baseball,” said Henderson. “Each chance we get to take the field is a chance to get better. We need to figure out how to cash in some more of our opportunities at the plate when we get them, but credit to Woodland today…they are a scrappy bunch and they made some
big plays defensively today to make it hard on us. They probably left here thinking they let one get away so they will be ready to go when we head down there on Friday to finish the series.”
Calhoun was on the road on Wednesday to take on Notre Dame (Tenn.) in Chattanooga, winning 7-1, improving to 17-6 on the season. They will complete their region series with Woodland on the road on Friday with a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. Those results were not in by print deadline.
The Jackets, who are likely to get the No. 3 seed from the region going into the Class AAAAA State Tournament, could possibly add one or two non-region games next week according to Henderson before the postseason begins the following week.