Lady Phoenix close in on Region 6 crown
The state-ranked Sonoraville High School softball team are likely the AAA Region 6 champions, entering this week needing just two wins or a LaFayette loss to seal the deal.
With big wins Friday night and Saturday morning, the Phoenix played three league games in three days starting Monday afternoon against North Murray County to finish out the regular season and get some rest heading into the playoffs.
In a pair of make-up games that took place about 18 hours apart last Friday and and Saturday, the Phoenix remained red-hot in the league with first a 9-0 win over Rockmart behind a Taylor Long no-hitter and then a 12-4 conquest of North Murray early Saturday morning.
The victories elevated them to 12-1 in the Region and gave them a three-game lead and a two-game lead in the loss column over second-place LaFayette, which was 8-3 and still had five Region games to play.
Against Rockmart, Long was unhittable, striking out 11 hitters in five innings while the offense gave her a nice cushion with its ninerun output.
The Phoenix collected all of its runs with two big innings. They scored three times in the bottom of the third for a three nothing lead and then added six runs in the bottom of the fourth and finish it out.
Besides her work in the circle, Long sparked the nine-run uprising by going 2-for-2 at the plate with a home run, three RBI, and a sacrifice fly.
Kelly Green was 2-for-3 with an RBI while Taylor Martin had three RBI and Olyvia Hopper drove in two more.
Emma Springfield scored two runs in the win.
About 12 hours later, the team was back on the bus to Chatsworth and they collected a big 12-4 victory over the Mountaineers.
Freshman pitcher Harley Brown got the win and classmate Lily Holton threw well in relief.
But the big thing was the offense remaining on fire with runs coming in four of the five innings.
The Phoenix put the home team on their heels immediately with a three-run top of the first and then added four in the second to go in front 7-0. Murray County countered with three runs in the bottom of the second to make it a game at 7-3, but Sonoraville scored two more in 3rd to go up, 9-3,
MC got its final run in the bottom of the third before the visitors completed the scoring with a three-run top of the fifth.
Long had her second homer in two games, along with a double, in a 3-for-4 effort that saw her drive in five runs and score twice.
Kelly Green was also 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI.
Freshman Molly Speach was 2-for-4 with a double and scored twice while Scarlett Hunter was 2-for-2 and scored three runs.
While the Phoenix, who are currently the number four AAA team in the state, were on the verge of claiming another region title, there was a pretty good race for the other three playoff spots behind them.
LaFayette was in second place at 8-3 with five Region games to go and ahead of third-place Ringgold, which had 10 wins but also 4 losses, meaning they were still behind the Lady Ramblers.
Rockmart saw its Region championship hopes end with last Friday’s loss to the Phoenix, but the Yellow Jackets were still in good shape for the postseason, standing 8-5 in the league for fourth place all by themselves.
They were also the last club in the nine-school league that was above .500 in Region action as Coahulla Creek was in fifth place at 6-7 and had to win out to have any chance of making the playoffs. That might be doable for the Colts but the end will be most challenging as they play Sonoraville on Wednesday night in the Phoenix’s final game of the regular season.
Voters across the state have also noticed the strength of the region as five of the schools in AAA Region 6 are listed among the top 24 in Georgia and three are in the top 12.
After Sonoraville, Ringgold, which started the week 11-6, is ranked sixth and LaFayette is number 12. Despite losing to the Phoenix last week, Rockmart stands number 17 and Coahulla Creek nearly rounds out the top 25, currently sitting at number 24.