Wesleyan sends Gordon Lee to losers bracket

Wesleyan did to Gordon Lee what the Lady Trojans usually do to other fastpitch softball teams in a 9-0 win Friday at the GHSA Class AAA state tournament, sending them to the losers bracket in Columbus.

The Lady Wolves (31-2) used aggressive baserunning and three Gordon Lee errors to easily advance to Saturday’s championship round. The Lady Trojans (26-6) must defeat Jackson at 11 Saturday morning, then down Wesleyan twice to win what would be the Chickamauga program’s 12th state title.

“We made some uncharacteristic mistakes that cost us,” Gordon Lee coach Dana Mull said. “But our whole approach this year has been looking forward and not backward, so we will continue to look to the next game and continue to fight.”

Wesleyan went up 1-0 in the top of the first inning on a hit batter, stolen base, groundout and Macey Cintron sacrifice fly. After Gordon Lee left two runners on in the bottom half, the Lady Wolves struck for another run in the second as Avery Tucker reached on a one-out single, stole second with two outs and scored on Ryley Kutter’s single.

The Lady Trojans again left two on in the third, which proved costly in the fifth when Wesleyan got a leadoff double from Cintron and a two-run homer from Christina McCoy to make it 4-0. Wesleyan used two errors, two bunts that resulted in zero outs, one single and a dropped third strike/ passed ball to put the game away with five runs in the sixth.

Kutter, despite walking three, pitched a two-hit shutout for Wesleyan, which won Class A private titles in 2017, 2018 and 2021. Like the Lady Trojans, a Class A public team last year, the Atlanta program was bumped up by reclassification.

Sydney Garrett took the loss after allowing three earned runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings.