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4B
♦ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2007
Lowndes GHSA CLASS AAAAA SOFTBALL
State Finals, October 25-27, 2007
Thu, Noon 1)
Columbus Softball Complex
Thu, 4 pm 5)
Thu, Noon 2)
Fri, 5 pm 11) '
Mill Creek
Thu, Noon 3)
E Coweta
Thu, 4 pm 6)
Warner Robins
Sat, 11:15 am 14)
Thu, Noon 4)
Pchtree Ridge
Loser 6 Loser 11 ;
Loser 1 Fri, Ipm 9) Sat, 1:15 pm 15):
Sat, 9:15 am 13) ■
Fri, 9 am i
‘ 7) j
Fri, spm 12)
Loser 2
Loser 14 (If first loss)
Loser 5
Loser 3 Fri, 1 pm 10)
Fri, 9 am 8)
- GaSports.com
Georgia High School Sports Network
ELITE
From page jB
and Kristen Graham hit two
home runs.
It wasn’t quite so easy later
on Friday as Warner Robins was
paired with No. 4 Union Grove.
The game was tied 1-1 through
seven, and thus came an extra
inning. Union Grove was the visit
ing team and scored on an error in
the top of the eighth to lead 2-1.
It was two of those seniors, Love
The 'mystery guy', Georgia needs a few more miracles
Can anybody tell me
what happened to
that mystery guy,
the one who always is sup-
posed to tell
you about
how things
are going
to turn out
ahead of
time, things
that go
completely
against
your expec
tations?
He’s the
Matthew Brown
Journal Sports Writer
star of every, ‘lf someone
had told me this was going to
happen before it happened I
wouldn’t have believed it.’
Well, he was supposed to
tell me prior to the cur
rent football season that the
University of Georgia was
going to kick a last-second
game-winning field goal,
in Tennessee, and it would
spark such a jubilant cel
ebration that it would have
the head coach apologiz
ing to the host school. And
that would lead me to think,
‘Oh goody, we’re going to
beat those UT Vols again in
Knoxville.’
But as it happens with
everyone else, I completely
misread the prognostication.
First, I see the Bulldogs fail
to put up even the slightest
resistance against Tennessee
in the first trip up north.
‘You mean we needed a field
goal at the buzzer to beat
Vanderbilt? And our players
were going to react as if they
had just pulled off the upset
of the century?’
One year ago in Athens,
Georgia loses to Vanderbilt
on a late field goal. This
and Lauren Graham, who executed
when needed to both tie the game
and win it in the home eighth.
Love did her job with a bunt, and
Graham doubled to left with two
outs and the score tied.
“I, put a bunt down, and the
catcher got kind of cocky,” said
Love. “She threw it to third, so I
was safe. I made it around to third,
and I was the winning run. It felt
so good. I was so glad we won, and
I’m so ready to get to (Columbus).
It’s my senior year and I want to
year in Nashville, the
Commodores stay on the
same field with the Bulldogs
all the way until the last
three seconds. At least it’s
not Florida State and its
back-to-back gridiron losses
to Wake Forest.
Has anyone ever seen
Mark Richt that upset as he
was when some of his play
ers danced on the logo in the
middle of the field? Right
away he says on the televi
sion interview, “That’s not
what we do.” Apparently a
handful of Bulldogs weren’t
aware of that fact.
The coach also made ref
erence on the radio about
Vanderbilt being a “great
team.” Coaches, I’ve
learned, don’t view their
schedule and opponents the
way most fans and writers
do. Not many of us stand
ing on the outside looking
in would have an easy time
thinking of Vanderbilt as a
“great” football team.
Am I to believe that any
starter for the Commodores
could right now supplant
his counterpart on the
Bulldogs? Ideally, it’s not
supposed to be that way,
not when comparing UGA
to VU or when putting FSU
side-by-side with those WF
Demon Deacons.
The results, though, don’t
he. Does Georgia, top to bot
tom, have better athletes
than Vanderbilt, but when
measuring actual football
players do things come out
equal? What must Steve
Spurrier think on the sub
ject, as if anyone really
cares?
If Vandy is a “great” team,
what must be the opinion in
win state.”
“It was the first pitch and I was
just ready,” said Graham. “(The
pitcher) had been throwing outside
a lot, but that one happened to be
in the middle of the plate. She had
been working the outside comer
the whole game.”
It wasn’t her first game-winning
hit ever in softball, but her first
for the 2007 season and by far her
most satisfying moment.
“Definitely, for a game like that,”
she said. “It was a really good hit.
Athens regarding Kentucky
football this year? Is any
one forgetting that Florida
is the defending champi
onship team of both the
Southeastern Conference
and this new-fangled FBS
thing?
That’s right; Georgia-
Florida is just a few days
away. The last four games
of this series (one of which
Georgia actually won!) have
been decided by seven points
or less. This time, a game
winning kick would be rea
son to celebrate. Or maybe
another overtime miracle as
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SPORTS
the one in Alabama.
That brings me to a point
of debate. Matthew Stafford
to Mikey Henderson in
Alabama was a great game
winning play. But, was it
the greatest game-winning
catch of this Mark Richt era?
While some people tend to
relate “greatest” with “most
recent,” a little thinking and
research would suggest that
this year’s entry wasn’t as
big a miracle as you might
believe.
Being that it was over
time, and Alabama had just
taken a lead with a field
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EFFORT
From page j B
a lot more,to the story than just
the final score.
The Lady Eagles went out front
1- in the fourth. Becky Studstill
doubled. Heather Langston then
singled to put runners on first and
third before Purvis grounded to
shortstop for a fielder’s choice to
score Studstill.
Both of the Lady Knights’ runs
came in the bottom of the sev
enth.
“Sarah struck out 17 batters,”
said Northside Head Fast-pitch
Coach Mitch Horton, “but we
walked two in the seventh and
they got a timely base hit to plate
the winning run with two outs.”
That dropped the Lady Eagles
into the losers bracket where they
faced the all-too-familiar Jones
County squad. Jones County lost
its opener 3-2 to Whitewater but
then rebounded to blast Americus-
Sumter 11-1.
The two had some pretty amaz
ing games during the regular sea
son and region tournament and
“amazing” was the description
Horton placed on this one.
It went 10 innings with Northside
winning 1-0 with the go-ahead run
being pushed across in the top of
the seventh. It unfolded much as
the Starr’s Mill game with Studstill
reaching and making it to second
where Langston this time bunted
her over to third. Purvis against
sacrificed her home and again with
a grounder to third.
“Sarah got us out of a lot of
jams,” Horton said. “She struck
out 17 in one of the best games I
have ever been a part of.
“That was the fifth time we had
played them this season and we
beat them all five times. It was dif
ficult (this time, however) because
the loser of this game was elimi
nated and we hated to put out one
of our region teams.”
Next, Northside beat Mclntosh
2- this time with both of its runs
coming in the seventh. The Lady
Chiefs scored their only one in the
first.
After that, Horton said, Purvis
“set them down the rest of the
game.” She ended up striking out
I was happy that we won and our
team could go on.”
The Demonettes completed the
sweep by edging East Coweta 2-1.
Kristen Graham was the winning
pitcher, and Kylie Barrett and Kim
Burgess drove in the runs.
The winner between Warner
Robins and Peachtree Ridge meets
No. 2 Mill Creek or East Coweta at
4 p.m. Thursday. The loser doesn’t
play again until Friday morning.
• Houston County High, 1-
AAAAA champions, went 2-2 in
goal in its first possession,
Georgia had several chances
to either force a second over
time or win outright. It just
so happens that Stafford and
Henderson connected right
off the bat.
Even if that play didn’t
work, the Bulldogs still had
three plays from the 25
to get a first down, which
would have meant four more
downs to reach the end zone
or get yet another first down.
So in terms of the situation,
Georgia wasn’t quite as des
perate as it was in a couple
of other games from the
* fi 9k ■
~ Ji
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"To try and sum It up:
four of the live games
were decided in the
last at bat. But, it was
a wonderful
tournament.
Unfortunately we Just
came up a little short."
- Northside Head Fast-pitch Coach
Mitch Horton
eight while giving up two hits.
Meanwhile, Mary Evans had two
of the Lady Eagles’ three hits. One
of those came in the bottom of the
seventh to get the rally started.
Kristen Smith also had a hit in the
inning and with the bases loaded
and one out, Langston hit a single
between shortstop and third to
score the winning run and keep
the season alive.
That put Northside in a match
up against Lee County. The winner
would qualify for the Sectionals,
the loser would go home. The
Lady Trojans entered the game
not having lost until its fourth
game of the day. That came against
Whitewater, 15-0.
The difference, in a 1-0 Lee
County win, turned out to be an
error - two bunt base hits and a
single to left.
’’Sarah pitched great striking
out eight,” Horton said. “We had
two innings of runners on second
and third and less than two outs
and just could not get the hit to
score a run.
”To try and sum it up: four of
the five games were decided in the
last at bat. But, it was a wonder
ful tournament. Unfortunately we
just came up a little short.”
Northside ended its year 30-8
with Langston being the leading
hitter for the tourney with a .360
batting average.
“I don’t think I can even sum up
what Sarah did for us during the
tournament,” Horton added. “As
she gave us every opportunity to
win and was just awesome. I am so
proud of this team and what they
accomplished this season.”
the south sectionals. On Friday,
the Bears beat No. 9 Luella 5-3,
but on Saturday two fellow region
clubs ended the Houston season by
similar 3-2 scores.
Lowndes beat Houston on a walk
off home run in the seventh after
the Bears defeated the Vikettes
by the mercy rule in the 1-AAAAA
tourhament the week before in
Valdosta. Tift County won the
deciding game eight innings to
earn a bid in Columbus, for the
first time.
recent past.
Maybe it was the game
and play that received a
lot of attention when the
Bulldogs were heading up
to Knoxville this year. Back
in Richt’s rookie year, 2001,
David Greene hit Verron
Haynes on a six-yard touch
down with five seconds to go
to beat then No. 6 ranked
Tennessee 26-24. It was
Georgia’s first win in Rocky
Top land in 21 years.
The scoring drive took 39
seconds, and though I don’t
know for sure, since the
See BROWN , page ifC
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