Round Two for Phoenix, Jackets is Saturday
The rematch is Saturday afternoon 2 p.m. at Calhoun High School.
That’s when Round Two between the Calhoun and Sonoraville High School softball teams will be held as each team takes a quick, brief break from their Region schedules.
“I know we’re looking forward to it,” Calhoun High School head softball coach Diane Smith recently said. “I know they’re good and playing very well, but I feel like we are too and I know my girls are looking forward to the game.”
The teams met just a little over five weeks ago before a packed house next to The Furnace. Sonoraville, thanks to the pitching of senior Taylor Long and a couple of timely hits, won the first match, 4-0.
Since then it’s been a real ride for both teams with Sonoraville currently the number one ranked AAA high school team in Georgia while Calhoun is right near the top of the 5-A Region 6 standings.
The Lady Phoenix are no long unbeaten after a ninegame win streak to start the year ended last Friday at the Allatoona Buccaneer Bash Tournament with a 7-0 loss to Ola High School from McDonough.
Going into the game, Sonoraville had allowed just six runs all year but Ola topped that in one fall swoop, pushing seven runs across the plate..
Head coach Chad Hayes’ team, however, rebounded nicely from that defeat just a couple of hours later with a 5-0 shutout of Cherokee to go 1-1 in the strong tournament.
That put Sonoraville at 10-1 to start the week but still 5-0 in AAA Region 6 play to sit atop the league standings as they squared off against Ringgold Wednesday and then travel to Rockmart on Thursday in a pair of league games before they play their Calhoun City Schools counterparts Saturday afternoon.
Calhoun was in that same Allatoona tournament last weekend and dropped three games in about a 24-hour period to fall to 7-7 overall. But most importantly, they went into this week 5-1 in Region and were right there with front-running
Blessed Trinity.
The Phoenix have relied heavily on Long’s stellar work in the pitching circle and their defense to reach this point, having allowed only 13 runs in 11 games going into this week while scoring 48 total. Six of their 10 wins have been by a shutout.
Calhoun meanwhile has had several big games offensively, having scored double digits runs in five of their seven wins.
Going into this week, the Lady Jackets had scored 90 runs in their first 14 games.
It also does seem that Sonoraville will see a different starting pitcher from Calhoun this time around as sophomores Avery Greenson and Athens Hudson have recently been handling those duties
with senior Sydney Terry, who started the first game between the team, out.
Smith had a lot of praise for her young hurlers.
“Avery and Athens have both been doing a great job,” she said. “They’re both talented pitchers. They both can do
different things. The biggest thing for them right now is just to get experience and they have been getting experienced lately. But both of them have been doing a real good job.”
The rematch is set for Saturday afternoon at Calhoun High School.