Georgia softball stars earn split at Frost
For just the fifth time in the 19-year history of the Tennessee-Georgia All-Star Softball Classic, both squads left with a victory.
The recent high school graduates from southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia split their annual doubleheader at Chattanooga’s Frost Stadium last Tuesday night. The Peach State won the opener, 9-6, before their counterparts from across state lines rebounded for an 8-3 win in the nightcap.
Georgia Tech signee Crosby Huckabay (Baylor) was named the overall Most Valuable Player. The shortstop singled and drew a walk in two plate appearances in Game 1, scoring a pair of runs. She reached base three more times in Game 2, knocking in three runs on a home run. She also added a pair of stolen bases on the night and her five total runs set a new All-Star Classic record.
Her former Baylor teammate, Kayla Hughes, earned Tennessee Player of the Game honors after shutting down the Georgia bats to the tune of three earned runs on four hits in the second game. She walked one, struck out four and delivered a double at the plate.
The Georgia Player of the Game award was given to Olivia Tamewitz (Heritage), who had three hits on the evening to go with three RBIs and one run scored. Erin Whitlock (Sonoraville) also had a great night for the Georgia Stars, tying a record with four hits in five at-bats. She scored twice and stole two bases.
Staked to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Taylor Chadwick (Ringgold) circled the bases on what turned out to be a four-base error, Georgia did most of its damage in the top of third inning of the opening game when they scored six times on seven hits. Tamewitz drove in two with a single, while Whitlock, Shay Wooten (Gordon Lee) and Hannah Wills (Heritage) also had RBI-singles.
Tamewitz picked up another RBI-hit in the fifth, while Kerrigan Ramsey (Trion) doubled home a run in the same frame.
Emily Armour (Gordon Lee) gave up a run in the bottom of the first on a single by Taylor Moran (Silverdale Baptist), but stranded two more runners before settling down. She got the win, allowing just one earned run on three hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Peyton Henderson (Trion) closed things out, giving up four earned runs on six hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts.
Moran allowed six earned on nine hits in three innings as she was saddled with the loss.
A sacrifice fly by Haley Johnson (Ridgeland) gave Georgia a 1-0 lead against Hughes in the bottom of the first of Game 2, but Tennessee would score three runs off of Emily Mitchell (Calhoun) in both the third and fourth innings, including Huckabay’s shot in the fourth.
Georgia got two back in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Wills and a wild pitch, but Tennessee would add solo runs in each of the final two innings to cap the scoring.
Mitchell took the loss, allowing four earned runs on six hits and two walks in five innings. She finished with four strikeouts. Henderson threw the last two innings, giving up two earned on four hits and a pair of walks.
Alexis Grampp (Chattanooga Central) had a two-run double for the Volunteer State stars.
Tennessee now leads in all-time game wins, 29-9.