Gordon Lee wins first NGAC league football title since 2004.
Gordon Lee head softball coach Dana Mull is fond of saying that each one of the teams she has coached is different. And while that may be the case, all of her teams eventually end up in the same place. Columbus. For the 14th consecutive time since she took over the program 14 years ago, Mull’s squad will play in the Elite Eight after the top-seeded Lady Trojans ran roughshod over 17th-seeded Hawkinsville with a pair of 14-0 run-rule victories in a Class 1A Public School Division second-round sweep last Wednesday.
“(Getting to Columbus) is always the team’s goal,” Mull said. “I know I say this a lot, but we really do try to take it one game at a time and not to think too much ahead. Winning region was our first goal and then winning this series to get to Columbus.
“Now that we’ve done all of that, we’ll be able to look to Columbus and get ready for our first game down there. The kids are excited about that.”
Gordon Lee had 22 total hits, many of the infield and bunt variety, as they burned up the basepaths with their speed and pressured the Red Devils into nine errors in the doubleheader, including five miscues in the second inning of Game 2.
That one inning was a microcosm of the evening. Playing as the visiting team and leading 1-0, Gordon Lee used one walk, one bunt single, a sacrifice, two stolen bases and five fielding and/or throwing errors from Hawkinsville to score three runs without hitting a single ball past the pitcher’s circle.
“That’s kind of our team’s style this year,” Mull explained. “We’ll short-game you if we need to and we’ve got some that can hit it. We’ll mix it up and do what we need to do. We just try to figure out the other teams’ weaknesses and try to use them to our advantage and I think this team has done a really good job of that this season.”
A two-run double by Bailey Miller highlighted a six-run second inning in Game 1 and Katherine Grace McElhaney had a tworun double an inning later as the Lady Trojans tacked on six final run. Gracey Kruse
also had a two-RBI single in the frame.
Then in Game 2, the Lady Trojans led 4-0 entering the top of third when they sent 15 batters to the plate and scored nine times on six hits. Faith Alexander and Mary Kate Pritchett each had two-run singles, while Kruse capped the big inning with a grand slam home run to centerfield.
Kruse finished the day 5 for 7 with six RBIs and four runs scored. Alexander had three hits in five at-bats and scored five times. Pritchett had four total RBIs, while Miller added three.
McElhaney had two doubles, two sacrifice bunts and drew one walk. Christin Isbill scored four runs in the doubleheader and Paxton Grimes had three hits and crossed the plate three times.
Canaan Burnett was 3 for 3 in the opener and collected the win in both games. She pitched a total of just five innings in two games, allowing one hit each game with two walks and three strikeouts total. Janie Durham got in three innings’ worth of work. She allowed four hits and fanned four.
Danielle Powers took both losses for Hawkinsville (18-10). She had two of her team’s six hits on the day, while Rebecca Johnson added a double.
Gordon Lee (29-1) will take its 29-game winning streak into the first game of the Elite Eight on Thursday. They will take on No. 8-seeded Wilcox County in the opener at 2 p.m. that afternoon. Wilcox defeated Marion County, 12-2 and 5-0, on Wednesday.
The Lady Trojans, along with two-time defending Class 1A Public School state champion GMC, will be the favorites when play gets underway next week and Mull said her team just has to continue to do what it has been doing to be successful and have a chance for state title No. 7.
“We have to have our pitchers get leadoff batters out and we have to have good at-bats, run the bases and be smart on the bases,” she added. “It’s things we always work on, but things we can always get better at doing. There’s nothing specific that we’re really going to focus on (before we go). We’re just going to try to keep playing our brand of ball.”
Region 6-A flexs its muscles
Just in case anyone doubted the strength of Region 6-A in softball this season, the Class 1A Public School Elite Eight include Gordon Lee, Mt. Zion, Bowdon and Trion, while the Class 1A Private School Elite Eight includes Christian Heritage and Mt. Pisgah.
If Gordon Lee, Mt. Zion, Bowdon and Trion all win their opening games, the winners’ semifinals in Columbus would be Gordon Lee versus Mt. Zion and Bowdon versus Trion.
The eight teams in the Public School brackets (along with their seeding) are Gordon Lee (1), GMC (2), Wilcox County (8), Bowdon (10), Glascock County (11), Telfair County (12), Trion (14) and Mt. Zion (20).
GMC won the last two Class 1A Public School state titles during Gordon Lee’s two-year stint in Class 2A.
The two teams met for the Class 1A Public School title in 2012 and 2013 with the Lady Trojans winning both times.