Lady Wolverines Are Sweet Sixteen Bound
By EDDY GIFFORD
Sports Writer
Photo by Eddy Gifford – The Lady Wolverines’ Lexi Lawson makes the play on a popup in action against Bleckley County on Friday in the first round of the state tournament. The Lady Wolverines downed the Lady Royals 3-1 and 16-11 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Dade County High School Lady Wolverine softball team began its run towards the state championship last week when they hosted the Lady Royals of Bleckley County from Cochran in a best of three series in Trenton.
The series started with a double header on Friday, Oct. 18, with the “if necessary” game on Saturday, Oct. 19.
The Lady Wolverines got off to a good start, scoring the first run of the series in the bottom of the first inning when Riley Talley singled with one out and Adilynn Gross singled with two outs followed by a run scoring single by Isabell White to give them the early 1-0 lead.
Lexi Lawson dominated the Lady Royals over the first four innings while Dade County’s offense scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to increase the lead to 3-0.
The Lady Royals scored their only run of the game in the top of the fifth inning on a pair of hits to cut the Lady Wolverine lead to 3-1.
Lawson shut the Lady Royals out the final two innings and picked up the win, 3-1. She threw 98 pitches, 76 strikes, while giving up just four hits, striking out eight, and walking no one.
The Lady Wolverines managed just five hits with White getting a single while Winter Daniel had a big triple and RBI. Talley, Gross, and Rylee Byram had the other hits.
2BH: Byram
3B: Daniel
TB: Daniel 3, Bryam 2, Gross 1, White 1, Talley 1
HBP: C. Chambers, Page
CS: Page
E: Daniel
Pitches-Strikes: Lawson 98-76
Batters Faced: Lawson 26
Photo by Eddy Gifford – Lady Wolverine catcher Isabell White made an outstanding play on a ball in the dirt in action last week against Bleckley County. Dade County now travels to Dublin this week to face East Laurens in the Sweet Sixteen series on Thursday and Friday if necessary. The winner advances to the Elite Eight in Columbus next week.
The Lady Wolverine win was followed by game two after a 20 minute break with the Lady Royals being the home team in this game.
This game got off to a slow start with the Lady Wolverines taking the lead in the second inning, 1-0. Things changed quickly in the bottom of the third when the Lady Royals came to life and scored seven runs to take their first lead of the series, 7-1. The Lady Wolverine defense struggled in the inning making several errors.
Dade County responded by scoring two runs in the top of the fourth to cut the lead to 7-3, but the Lady Royals responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to go up 9-3.
The Lady Wolverines pushed across two more runs in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to 9-5 and then held the Lady Royals scoreless in the bottom of the fifth.
Dade exploded in the top of the sixth, pounding out nine hits to go along with three walks and scoring 11 big runs to take the lead, 16-9.
The Lady Royals managed two runs in the bottom of the sixth but that would be all they would get, and the Lady Wolverines claimed the game 16-11 and the series two games to none.
Kaleighly West picked up the win, pitching one and a third innings of relief, giving up no hits. Lawson pitched five and two-thirds innings, giving up five earned runs, 11 total, and striking out five.
Talley had three hits and three RBI’s while Madi Page had three hits and two RBI’s. Byram, Daniel, and Miley Chambers had two hits each as the Lady Wolverines had 18 hits in the game.
