The No. 7 Lady Trojans (22-5, 7-1 Region 5-AAAA) have played home games at the University of West Georgia, the East Carrollton Recreation Center and at their true home field on the CHS campus. Monday's game, played at their true home field, sent seniors Randi Phillips and Jessie Pruett off in style with a shutout victory.
"Obviously [Tuesday] is our big game, but we felt like [Monday] we played well enough to win. We did some good things on the bases and some bad things on the bases. We still have some cleaning up to do. Overall it's a win, our last home win and a good win for our seniors," Carrollton coach Lisa Phillips said.
In the game Carrollton got runners on base and then forced the Fayette County (3-16-1, 1-8) defense to make plays, which more often than not led to Lady Trojan runs.
In the first inning Randi Phillips led off with a double, moved to third on a Shelby Yates single. Then Yates allowed herself to get caught in a rundown between first and second, allowing Phillips to score the first run of the game.
It was more defensive mistakes in the second inning that allowed Taylor Schroeder to score after she was hit by a pitch, stole second and went to third on a throwing error. Then the Lady Tiger defense couldn't handle Jacyln Eaves' grounder and Schroeder came in to score for the 2-0 lead after two.
Phillips scored her second run of the game on an error in the third and Brooklyn Emory's hard triple down the first base line brought Pruett home in a two-run inning, as Carrollton took the 4-0 advantage.
The Lady Trojans added another run in the fifth as Montana Miles came around to score after walking and they wrapped up the scoring in the sixth as Emory singled and her courtesy runner Maime Crawford came around on a Schroeder RBI single for the 6-0 final.
The aggressive baserunning led to some runs for the Lady Trojans, but there were also a pair of baserunning mistakes that led to easy Fayette County double plays.
"It gives us some confidence on the basepaths that we can do some things. At the same time we have to realize when and where we can do those things. We did make some baserunning mistakes that we don't normally make. Obviously putting the ball in play and forcing the defense to make mistakes is huge and when they do make those mistakes we try to take advantage of them," Lisa Phillips said.
Defensively Randi Phillips started the game in the circle giving up just one hit and striking out two in three scoreless innings. Following Phillips on the hill Katie Jones pitched herself in and out of trouble in each of her four scoreless innings. A runner reached third in the fourth and fifth innings, the bases were loaded in the sixth and a runner reached second in the seventh. Jones finished allowing three hits, a walk and five strikeouts.
While it was the final home game for Phillips and Pruett, the Carrollton coach envisions a lot more games for the two in black and gold.
"These two have been with me since eighth grade when they played JV for us. Obviously, Randi being my daughter, that's special, but Jessie's been like one of my own. They've been very close through the years and it's going to be tough to lose both of them, but at the same time it's been a pleasure to coach them," Lisa Phillips said.
The Lady Trojans wrap up the regular season in Alexander today at 4:30 p.m. with significant playoff implications.
"A win gives us an automatic berth into the state tournament and makes us the No. 1 seed from our subregion, that's the big thing about [today]. The region tournament will be at Shuford Park in LaGrange on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week and there we'd only have to win one game to ensure us the state tournament, but we'd love to go in with the one-seed, relax and get another region championship for Carrollton," Phillips said.
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