Phoenix opens playoff run at home
For the Sonoraville softball team, now the real fun begins.
The Phoenix, currently the numberfive ranked AAA softball team in Georgia, begins its pursuit of a state championship Wednesday at The Furnace with an opening-round best two-out-of-three series against Hart County.
The teams play a doubleheader Wednesday beginning at 4 p.m. and the second contest is slated for 6 p.m. With wins in those two games, the Phoenix would advance to the second round next week.
With a split however, the ballclubs would be looking at a winner-take-all game 3 and that game, if necessary, would be back in Sonoraville at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
The Lady Phoenix clinched the AAA Region 6 banner and the top seed in the league Saturday afternoon with a onesided 8-0 win over Lafayette before a packed house at their own field.
The win put the red-and-black at 14-2 in the Region and the Lady Ramblers second at 12-4, along with Ringgold, which lost to Rockmart, 12-8, Saturday morning in a battle for the third seed.
That makes those four clubs the quartet of playoff Representatives the region will have in the AAA state playoffs as no one else in the league finished above .500.
Coahulla Creek was the fifth-place team in the region at 7-11, but if the Phoenix make a deep playoff run, as expected, the Colts will be able to say they were one of the few teams this fall that knocked off the Phoenix.
In the win over LaFayette, the Phoenix had the bats working and senior pitcher Taylor Long was her dominant self and that is the formula the team is hoping gets them where they want to go in the next couple of weeks.
The Phoenix scored three runs in the second, two in the fourth, two more in the fifth, and added a solo tally in the sixth to start their celebration.
On top of that, Long tossed her fourth no-hitter of the year, striking out 14 Lafayette hitters in six innings of work as the Ramblers never had a runner get past second base.
Long, Erin Garland, Molly Speach and Olyvia Hopper each had two hits
apiece with Hopper 2-for2 while Speach was 2-for-3 and Garland and Long were both 2-for-4.
Both of Long and Speach’s hits were doubles and Speach also scored two runs. Garland drove in two runs.
Kelly Green had an RBI double and Scarlett Hunter had a single and two stolen bases for the Region champs. Taylor West, who had a stolen base, and Harley Brown each added a hit in the big win.
Should the Phoenix eliminate Hart County, which is the four seed out of Region 8, they will advance to the second round and meet the winners of the Crisp County-Morgan County series
next week.
Crisp County is the third seed out of Region 2 while Morgan County is the second seed out of Region 4.
Hart County went 6-6 in Region 8 and finished fourth behind region champion Franklin County and then Oconee County and East Jackson.
Franklin County won Region 8 with a 10-0 record while Oconee was at 7-3. Franklin County enters the playoffs with an 18-6 record and they were the only team in the region with a winning record.
The other teams in Sonoraville’s region that will play this week have Rockmart taking on Oconee County, Lafayette facing East Jackson and Ringgold meeting Franklin County.
The Phoenix are 21-5 overall.