The job at hand was pretty direct for the Lady Greyhounds last week. They needed three wins in four games in a span of three days to protect their spot in the region standings and clinch a spot in the GHSA Class AAAA state playoffs.
Mission accomplished. Jones County took control early and often last week, sweeping a Tuesday twinbill against Stockbridge 15-1 and 15-5 and routing Woodland 19-1 on Wednesday. All of that made the result of Thursday’s regular-season finale against Ola irrelevant in terms of postseason positioning, one in which JCHS saw a big inning blow a game open in a 10-2 defeat.
It all ended up with the Lady Hounds being 11-7 in the region, one game better than Locust Grove’s 10-8 mark against region teams.
“It’s been a full week. These were games that we had to win to get a spot in the playoffs,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Tripp Burt said. “The girls did a did good job all week of coming out ready to play softball.”
Focus was evident for the Lady Greyhounds against Stockbridge in Tuesday’s road doubleheader sweep. The 15-1 win saw the Lady Greyhounds score five times in the first inning and 10 times in the third for the final margin. In the other doubleheader victory, a six-run third inning broke a 2-2 tie. The doubleheader sweep was followed up a day later with a 19-1 pasting of Woodland.
Jones County, even with Thursday’s loss to Ola, could benefit from the timing of its schedule that also included this past Tuesday’s season finale at Houston County. That’s because the postseason will open Oct. 16 at either East Forsyth of Eastside in a best-of-three series. The eight remaining teams in each classification after the first two rounds will advance to the state Elite 8 Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 in Columbus.
“We tried to set out our schedule to end the year so we see good softball,” Burt said. “We just have to come out and be mentally tough and play good softball”
