Lady “Cats” Clinch State Birth

Featured Stories, Team FYN Sports

The Gilmer High School Lady Bobcats softball team clinched a state title birth and first round home series with a second place finish in the Region 7-AAAA tournament, held at Heritage Park in Dalton Georgia. The Lady “Cats” stayed unbeaten throughout the tournament before falling in both games of the Region Championship to Heritage to finish as the Runner-Up and the number two seed.The Lady “Cats” improbable run began with a win over River Ridge in round one. The Lady General came into the game with only four losses on the year and none in region play. Gilmer followed with an encore that featured a round two 7-1 win over the Pickens High School Dragonettes that saw freshman Phenom, Taylor Bowling, strike out 12 batters.


(Video Courtesy of Karen Deyton)

The third round saw a 2-0 upset of defending AAAA state championship, Northwest Whitfield. Boling struck out 10 Lady Bruins in the win.

The win set up a championship game re-match up with the Lady Generals of Heritage. With Gilmer entering the championship game undefeated in tournament play and Heritage already having one loss at the hands of Northwest Whitfield, the Lady “Cats” could clinch the championship with another win, a loss, meant a third and deciding game between the two teams for the right claim the 2014 Region 7-AAAA championship.

Game one began with a Bowling strike out, the first of her six in the game. The lead-off batter striking out became a recurring theme as Bowling struck out the lead-off batter in each of the first three innings and did not see a lead-off batter reach first until the sixth.

Boling faced only four batters in the first inning before taking over on offense. Kaylee “TJ” Deyton got the scoring started in a game with a two out RBI standing double that gave Gilmer a 1-0 lead. The inning came to a close when Deyton was thrown out stealing third.

The top of the second saw the Gilmer defense face only three batters in the inning as the Lady Generals went three up and three down. Chancey Davis led off in the bottom of the second with double to left field. A sacrifice bunt moved her to third. McKenzie Chambers drove her in with an RBI single that put the Lady “Cats” up 2-0 going into the third.

The score remained the same before a Heritage home run in the top of the fourth put the Lady General on the board. Boling seemed unfazed as she came right back and struck out the next batter for her fifth of the game.

Gilmer maintained the one run lead until the top of the sixth when an RBI single followed by a bases loaded RBI sac ground out, put the Lady Generals up 3-2. Gilmer responded by tying the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the same inning.

Karli Loudermilk led off with a standing double, followed by a Deyton bunt single that put her on third. Kristen Marshall tied the game with a two out RBI single.

With neither team able to break the tie in the seventh the game proceeded into ITB (International Tie Breaker). After a lead off sac bunt moved the runner from second to third, an RBI double put the Lady Generals up 4-3.

The Lady “Cats” held the Lady Generals to the lone run and took to the plate with a chance to tie or win and secure the Region Championship.

A sac bunt moved Bailey Charles from second to third and brought up Deyton, who hit a deep fly ball for what should have been a sac fly. Charles was called out at home on the tag up play. Charles did not beat the tag at home; however, the Heritage catcher did not cleanly catch the ball, unbeknownst to the umpire who could not see the drop from his angle.

Charles was called out at home and the Lady Generals took game one 4-3.

Game two saw the Lady Generals run away with the game. Heritage scored two runs in the top of the first and added another in the top of the second to take an early 3-0 lead. Midway through the contest the game was suspended due to a tornado in the area.

The Lady General ended the game with a 6-1 win and the Region 7-AAAA crown. Autumn Banks scored the Lady “Cats’” only run on an RBI by Boling.

The Lady “Cats” host White County in the first round of the state tournament Wednesday October 15th.

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