State champions

The ECI Lady Dawg softball team brought back more hardware than they left with Saturday. The resilient Dawgs won their second state championship in the last three years, defeating the GMC Bulldogs in a comeback 2-1 win. As the only undefeated team left in the tournament, the Bulldogs only had to win one game on Saturday to capture another crown. GMC, playing out of the loser’s bracket, would have to defeat the Lady Dawgs twice on Saturday in order to take home the championship trophy. “Nerves were a huge factor on day one. Came out tight and it showed with a close game v. Irwin. Had a meeting with the seniors that night to discuss figure out how to keep the team relaxed and not allow the pressure and energy of Columbus to affect us. The seniors talked about this for almost an hour; focusing on the type of support each of their teammates needed from them. After that, we reset back to being process oriented and not stressing over outcomes. So, when we lost the lead to Lanier or while trailing the entire game v. GMC, we didn’t panic. Each player just focused on doing their jobs and outcompeting the other team. Having a veteran group who has been there before and won a championship, really helped get the entire team to buy-in on what had to be done to be successful in Columbus. Obviously, MK had an incredible week, JAYNA IS THE GOAT, Kinley Grimes saved us numerous times with her glove work at 1B, but the whole senior group just did an amazing job of leading the rest of the team and showing them how things have to be done.” commented Coach Wimberly.

Down 1-0 from the first inning, the Bulldogs tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Down to their last out and strike with a 2 out 1-2 count, senior Jayna Kearson hit a shot past the diving shortstop for a dramatic walk-off single to win the game and the championship. The Lady Dawgs gifted GMC a run in the first inning to get down early. GMC got a 1-0 lead off of two errors and a hit in the middle to get the first inning lead. It would be the last hit for the GMC Bulldogs as the Lady Dawg defense and pitcher Mary Katherine Durden shut down the GMC offense for the remainder of the game. In fact, the only runner that reached base for GMC the rest of the way was in the sixth inning on an error. Both pitchers were dealing in the game allowing a total of 5 hits. Batters were swinging as neither gave up a walk during the game. The Lady Dawgs got a couple runners in scoring position in the second and third innings but failed to get the timely hit to push a run across.

The Bulldogs tied the game in the bottom of the seventh. Dot Russell reached to lead off the inning on an error. Russell moved to third on a single by Charley Mitchell and later scored on another GMC error on a Lola Walden fly to the outfield to tie the game 1-1. With runners on the corners and two outs and the count 1-2, Jayna Kearson put the Bulldog fans to their feet with a single to give the Bulldogs the comeback win and another state championship. Mary Katherine Durden allowed just the first inning hit against GMC with no walks, striking out 7 GMC batters. Getting the 4 hits for the Bulldogs were Kearson, Kayanna Thompson, Senaria Hillman and Charley Mitchell.

The Lady Dawgs began the championship run on Wednesday defeating Irwin Co. in a close one, 7-6.

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It was a slugfest with both teams pounding out 11 hits each. Down 3-1 in the fourth inning, the Lady Dawgs took their first lead of the game on singles by Abbey Marsh, Charley Mitchell and Mary Katherine Durden. The big shot of the inning was a 3-run homerun by Kearson to put the Bulldogs up 5-3. The Lady Dawgs added 2 more to the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth and held on for a 7-6 win to open up the tournament.

Next on tap for the Bulldogs was Schley Co. on Thursday who were flying high after a 17-2 win over Clinch Co. and were looking for another big game against the Lady Dawgs. They came back to earth after the Bulldogs defeated the Wilcats 13-0 to send them to the loser’s bracket. The Bulldogs continued their hit parade with 15 more against Schley. Leading the offensive juggernaut were Kearson and Mitchell with 3 hits, and Thompson, Hillman and Walden with 2 hits each. Durden allowed just 3 hits, zero walks, while striking out 6 Wildcats.

The next victim for the Lady Dawgs was Lanier Co. The two Bulldog teams are no strangers to each other having faced each other in Columbus 3 times in 2022. Lanier put the Bulldogs in the loser’s bracket in 2022, only to come back to defeat Lanier twice on championship Saturday to capture their first state championship. The Bulldogs got behind early, down 5-3 after 4 innings, they broke out for 6 runs in the sixth inning to take a 9-5 lead. The Lady Dawgs held on to that lead to win the game against Lanier to set the Bulldogs up for championship Saturday as the only undefeated team in the tournament.

The Lady Dawgs ended the year with a 25-8 season and 13-1 region record, and with state and region championship trophies. They have some big shoes to fill during the offseason, losing five seniors. Standing in the box for the last time as an ECI Bulldog Saturday were Abbey Marsh, Kayanna Thompson, Jayna Kearson, Kinley Grimes and Maddie Funderburk.