GREYHOUND SOFTBALL
With ill-timed injuries continuing, the Lady Greyhounds are now in a position to stage a huge upset of one of the state’s top softball teams to begin the GHSA State Softball Super Regionals.
Already down one of their top pitchers with Ansley Pegg sidelined, a hand injury to outfielder Marissa Moore added another to the injured list for Jones County, which lost 18-10 and 14-3 to Locust Grove in last week’s postseason region tournament, dropping the Lady Hounds to the fourth seed.
“We’ve had a couple of injuries late in the year that have kind of cost us a little bit, but we’ve got to have someone step up,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Tripp Burt said. “There’s never a good time for it, but late in the season, it’s tough because you don’t have a lot of time to recoup or rebrand.”
That sent JCHS to Northside Columbus, last year’s defending state champion, for the super regionals that began on Monday in a double-elimination format with the final round of games on Tuesday. The other two teams in the super regional were Chamblee and Statesboro.
“It’s a tough draw. We kind of faltered here at the end,” Burt said. “Northside Columbus is a good team, but that’s the challenge we’ve got in front of ourselves.”
The injury to Pegg meant more reliance on freshman pitchers for the Greyhounds against Locust Grove, but miscues in the field would undo Jones County’s chances with a combined seven errors being committed. In the 18-10 loss to Locus Grove, Jones County jumped on the Wildcats early leading 7-1 through two innings. All of that came undone with 11 runs being allowed in the third inning. Of the 11 runs scored against starter Cate Downey, just three were earned.
Freshman Ensley Barnes, used sparingly this year in varsity action, would pitch the final three innings with Paisley Watson finishing out the day in the pitcher’s circle for Jones County.
The barrage of runs given up were too much for Jones County’s bats to overcome despite Rylie Faulk’s three hits and six RBIs that included a pair of doubles in addition to a double by Allie Miller and Myah Briscoe socking a triple to go with two RBIs from Tranasia Parker.
Allie Willis, Bailey Jackson and Kimber Kent had hits in the 14-3 loss, in which Kaleigh Scarborough gave up just two earned runs in her first varsity action but would be undone by seven more unearned runs. The grit shown by the freshmen pitchers is something the Lady Hounds hope to quickly build from.
“They threw strikes and competed,” Burt said. “They weren’t rattled.”
Now, however, the chance is there to put all of that in the past in the most important part of the season.
“We had a few miscues, but now it’s the postseason and the records are out the door,” Burt said.
