After disposing of Troup, 8-0, to start the afternoon behind a no-hitter from Randi Phillips in the circle and a two-run blast by catcher Brooklyn Emory at the plate, the No. 7 Lady Trojans (25-6) set their sights on LaGrange.
Carrollton got a run in the top of the first after Phillips reached on a base hit, went to second on a Shelby Yates sacrifice bunt and came around to score on a wild pitch.
After LaGrange (16-12) — which will now be the No. 4 seed out of Region 5 for the Class AAAA state playoffs — knotted the game up at 1-all, the two teams went to the international tie-breaker in the eighth.
Carrollton started with Maime Crawford on second base and the freshman went to third on another sacrifice by Yates — also a freshman — to set up senior shortstop Jessie Pruett’s game-winning sacrifice fly.
Yates came up big in the bottom half of the inning defensively to help secure the win, gunning down a runner from her position at the hot corner trying to score from third base to halt the Lady Grangers’ best opportunity of the inning.
Phillips tossed her second complete-game victory in the nightcap to set up a 4 p.m. showdown with Alexander today. The Lady Cougars dropped a 4-3 decision to Columbus, which marched into the tournament finals on Wednesday night.
Should the Lady Trojans defeat Alexander, they would have to beat Columbus twice in the double-elimination setting to secure the region crown.
But the big game is the first one, obviously, where Carrollton can earn home-field advantage for the first round of the Class AAAA state playoffs with a win over Alexander.
Along with Emory’s homer against Troup, Phillips and Yates were both 2-for-3 at the plate, while Alli Hubbard led the way against LaGrange, going 3-for-3, with Phillips going 2-for-4.
Carrollton coach Lisa Phillips said her ball club took care of business on Wednesday after dropping the 5-3 contest to Columbus on Tuesday night.
“We tried to just play one game at a time. We knew we had to win that 4 o’clock game [against Troup], and we did that pretty quick with them. Then we came out really focused against LaGrange. That’s developed into a pretty good game for both teams over the last couple of years. It’s a good way to end the day,” Lisa Phillips said. “Hopefully, we’ll come back [Thursday] and get a win against Alexander.”
Region 6-A Tournament
The Mt. Zion High School softball team dropped its second-round tourney contest to the No. 1 team in Class A on Wednesday — Gordon Lee — suffering an 8-0, five-inning setback behind a seven-run third inning for the Lady Trojans (25-2) at North Cobb Christian in Kennesaw.
The Lady Eagles (16-11) now face an elimination matchup against Darlington (15-13) this morning at 10 at North Cobb Christian to start what MZ coach Millie Grimes hopes is a long day of action in trying to fight through the loser’s bracket and make their case for a Class A state playoff berth.
Mt. Zion took two out of three from Darlington during the regular season, winning 6-3 and 5-0 contests, and falling in a 5-0 affair.
“You know, if we go and we’re ready to play and we do what we’re capable of, we should win it. But they are also capable, too. We’ve got to play it, play all seven innings. I think if we do that, I think we can come out on the good side,” Grimes said.
As for Wednesday’s game with Gordon Lee, Grimes said the No. 1 team in the state just got its bats going in the one big inning.
“They hit the ball pretty well. We played pretty good, solid defense — everything but that one little inning. There was a few bloops, but they finally just hit the ball well and ran the bases real well,” Grimes said. “I felt that Jayde Bradley pitched good. We didn’t walk anybody. They just hit the ball and hit it where we weren’t.”
Region 5-AA Tournament
The Region 5-AA Tournament gets underway with a pair of games at Bremen today. Fourth-seeded Temple will play No. 5 Manchester to get things started at 3:30 p.m., which will be followed by No. 3 Bremen (17-5) taking on No. 6 Chattahoochee County at 5:30 p.m.
Top-seeded Bowdon (18-9) and No. 2 Heard County (24-4) both received first-round byes and will open tournament action on Saturday when play moves to Bowdon.
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