GMC, Houston County among Middle Georgia top softball seeds
Kate McGhee homered twice and Taylor Scott struck out nine as GMC defeated FPD 4-1 on Thursday in the GHSA Region 7-1A softball championship game at FPD.
Also Thursday, Mary Persons scored in the bottom of the seventh to defeat West Laurens 2-1 for the Region 2-4A title.
GMC and Mary Persons join Houston County and Dodge County as Middle Georgia teams winning region championships.
Scott’s solo homer in the fifth tied things at 1, and her two-run shot in the sixth helped put things away. Kaleigh Stackpole scored the go-ahead run in the fifth on a two-out passed ball. FPD pitchers Carli Sutton and Karsen Ochs combined for 13 strikeouts.
GMC (22-3) earns a bye into the second round of the Class 1A public school playoffs, scheduled for Oct. 19-20. FPD (25-4) started the week in first place in the Class 1A private school power ratings and likely will get a first-round bye, as well. The Class 1A brackets, based on power ratings, will be released Tuesday, with first-round play scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.
Mary Persons (23-6) will host Salem on Wednesday and Thursday in the first round, while West Laurens (18-11) entertains Luella. No. 3 seed Upson-Lee (10-15) heads to Woodward Academy, while fourth-seeded Perry (12-16) will travel to Eastside.
Region 1-6A: Houston County (21-6) rolled to the region title Wednesday, beating Coffee 10-2 and 20-2 to sweep a best-of-three series. The Bears improved to 21-6 with the routs, both of which were shortened games.
Madison Slappey and Caitlyn Davis went 3-for-3 for Houston County in the 10-2 win, Davis driving in three runs while Kayla Quakenbush drove in two. Taylor Peebles added two hits.
The Bears led the second game 7-0 after five and then exploded for 13 runs in the sixth.
Autumn Ring went 3-for-3 with three runs and two RBI for the Bears, who got two-hit games from Grace Hardee, Slappey, Quakenbush, Megan Whitaker and Madison Campbell. Quakenbush had four RBI and Sarah Henderson three.
The Bears will host Evans in a first-round series Wednesday and Thursday. Northside (10-17) qualified as the No. 4 seed and travels to Heritage-Conyers.
Region 1-5A: Veterans (10-13) finished third in its region tournament and travels to Starr’s Mill.
Region 2-4A: Fittingly, the final game of the series between Mary Persons and West Laurens was a one-run affair, won by the Bulldogs 2-1 on Thursday.
The winning run came in the top of the seventh. Destiny Middleton reached second on a two-out error and scored on Alexis Passmore’s single to right. The Raiders got a runner on on the bottom of the seventh, but couldn’t tie it.
Mary Persons and West Laurens had quite the battles Wednesday, the Bulldogs taking a 2-1 lead in the sixth and the Raiders tying it in the bottom of the seventh of the second game, West Laurens winning the first one 1-0.
Destiny Middleton’s single to center brought in Cadi Seitz with what proved to be the winning run for Mary Persons, which scored two runs in the eighth. West Laurens scored to pull within one, then watched the tying run gunned down at the plate and stranded runners on second and third when the game ended with a line drive out to third.
Region 4-5A: Jones County (21-10) advanced as a No. 3 seed and will play at the No. 2 seed from Region 2-5A, the loser of Monday’s South Effingham-Wayne County game.
Region 4-3A: Rutland (14-16), which lost 5-1 to Pike County on Thursday in the region championship game, will host Brantley County. No. 3 seed Peach County (12-14) heads to Appling County.
Region 3-2A: Dodge County defeated Bleckley County 8-3 on Wednesday for the region title. Dodge County (20-6) will host Early County, while Bleckley County (19-10) hosts Fitzgerald. No. 3 seed Dublin (12-11) heads to Thomasville, while fourth-seeded East Laurens (10-13) travels to Berrien County.
Region 8-2A: Monticello (16-8) finished third and will travel to Coretta Scott King.
Pairings were still incomplete before Friday afternoon action.
The first round begins Wednesday, and the state tournament in Columbus is Oct. 27-29
This story was originally published October 7, 2016 at 12:01 PM with the headline "GMC, Houston County among Middle Georgia top softball seeds."