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Friday, December 29,2017
Lake Oconee News
Page C3
sports Year in Review
This was another great year for athletics throughout Lake Country. The year 2017 will go down as one of
our area's most memorable years. As such, we decided to flip through the Lake Oconee News archive and
re-publish a handful of the best stories from this year. We hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane,
recent as the events may be, and we look forward to bringing you more great content in 2018.
1. A senior night to remember for Morgan softball
Justin Hubbard/Staff
Sadie Worth, Katee Finney and Mary Trent Chandler were each
honored following the Morgan softball team's 9-0 win over LOA
on Monday, Sept. 25. The three seniors played well in their final
regular season home game against the Lady Titans.
Justin Hubbard
justin@lakeoconeenews.us
Before taking the field with their
families for senior night festivities,
the Morgan County softball team’s
three seniors took the field and won
one more regular season home game
before the end of their high school
careers.
Sadie Worth,MaryTrentChandler
and Katee Finney each turned in
strong performances during the
Lady Dogs’ 9-0 mercy-rule victory
Sept. 28 over Lake Oconee Academy.
It was the two programs’ first-ever
meeting on the softball field.
Chandler started the game in the
pitcher’s circle, then made her way
around the field, playing every posi
tion by the end of the game. Finney
replaced her at pitcher and turned in
arguably her best performance ofthe
season, allowing no hits and striking
out seven batters. Worth continued
to shine at the plate, recording two
hits and a stolen base.
Despite each of the seniors’
reliable work on the field, though,
Morgan head coach Jason McBay
said the Lady Dogs will miss Worth,
Chandler and Finney because of
their off-field influence, too.
“Leaders come in a lot of different
shapes and sizes,” McBay said. “And
the way that they lead is probably
more impactful for longevity’s sake
than a leader that’s just getting you
pumped up for a season. They really
do a great job of pouring into the
lives of their teammates, and they
genuinelywantwhat’sbestforthem.
When it comes to decision-making
on the weekend, when it comes to
grades, tutoring, those three girls
genuinely care about the rest of this
team. And that’s what were gonna
miss most. They’re great ball play
ers on top of that, but the quality of
people that they are is something
that you can’t replace.”
The experience of playing every
position in one game was exciting
for Chandler. Late in the game, she
speared a ground ball at shortstop
and fired a throw to first to record
the out. She had just moved over
from third base to swap spots with
regular shortstop Alissa Webb.
Chandler said just about every
fielding position was new to her,
which made the experience all the
more memorable.
“All but three (were new), maybe,”
she said. “Everywhere else, I’d never
played before in a game. I thought it
was super fun. It was super memo
rable. It was nice.”
Worth and Chandler played their
entire high school careers atMorgan.
Finney, a native of Charleston,
Illinois, played only this season with
the Lady Dogs.
Although Worth said she has a
long-term friendship with Chandler,
she also said she’s formed abond with
Finney. The friendship shared by
all three of them made senior night
extra special.
“Mary Trent and I’ve been playing
ballforawhilethroughouttheyears,”
Worth said. ‘We’ve got a friendship
that is unbreakable. Katee, I tell her
all thetimethat even though shejust
moved here, she is such a light in
the dugout. As a person, I love both
of them to death. We had our ups
and downs throughout the season
with the games, but I wouldn’t have
wanted to share that with anybody
else. And that’s something we’ll be
able to share, hopefully, past high
school and college.”
Finney said she had a hard time
adjusting to her new school when
she first moved to Morgan. Thanks
in large partto Worth and Chandler,
who Finney said were “great girls to
share this senior year with,” Finney
was able to quickly settle in.
“It was very tough for me at first,”
Finney said. “But once I found my
group of people and got in with the
team, all the nervousness went away.”
Senior night was special, but it
was far from Morgan’s final game
of the season. The Lady Dogs later
had a strong showing in the Region
8-AAA tournament, which allowed
them to advance into the Class AAA
state playoffs.
Regardless of the fact Morgan fell
in the Sweet 16 round of this year’s
state tournament, Worth, Chandler
and Finney all enjoyed fruitful
careers with the Lady Dogs.
Worth and Chandler were both
part ofteams that won a lot of games
over the past fewyears and each had
success in their final year. Finney
stepped in this season and was a
consistent force in the pitcher’s circle.
Each one left their mark on the
program, and each will carry with
them lessons learned while playing
for the Lady Dogs.
“Throughout the years, there’s
been some ups and downs, but the
one thing that I’ve learned playing
ball here is that the flower that
blooms in adversity is the most
beautiful and rare of all,” Worth
said. “I guess what I’m trying to
say is I’ve grown in this program. I
keep coming back to God, but he’s
used softball to shape me. I used
to not be confident in myself and
everything and he has changed me
so spiritually, and he’s given me so
many revelations. Of course, I’m
still being molded into the woman
he wants me to be, but everything
I’ve gone through here, he’s molded
me. To sum that all up, what does it
mean to me? I guess it’s taught me
a life lesson and taught me to not let
anybody tell me that I’m not good
enoughbecause Godsays I’m worthy.
I’ve found my strength in him, and
this is the best season I’ve had.”
Contributed
Rate Slate, driver of the No. 8 Solid Rock Racing
Legends car, straps on his helmet before climbing into
his car to compete in the Legends series Nationals race
at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
2. Slate finishes
in nation’s top 10
Justin Hubbard
justin@lakeoconeenews.us
The Legends racing series’
Nationals event held in early
October in Las Vegas did
not go the way Rafe Slate
envisioned, but the Eatonton-
based Legends driver still
finishedinthetop 10 in points
among the country’s Semi-
Pro drivers.
Slate, who drives for his
family’s Solid Rock Racing
team, placed ninth in the
national ranking out of 343
Semi-Pro drivers. Amongthe
Legends Semi-Pro drivers
from Georgia, Slate finished
third.
“It feels pretty good, con
sidering we’ve had a pretty
strong year,” Slate said about
his points finish. ‘We didn’t
really have many technical
issues until right up to the
very end.”
And those technical issues
were aplenty.
Slate rolled his car onto
the Bull Ring short track,
located outside Las Vegas
Motor Speedway, and quickly
realizedhis setup wasn’t going
to work.
“We ran a lot of practice
Thursday,” said Shawn Slate,
Rafe’s father. “The track was
a pretty big challenge for all
of us. We had the wrong gear
when we started. We had to
do a little bit of tweaking on
the setup.”
Shawn said he and Rafe
fixed the car’s setup. After
that, they watched and
learned from drivers who
had competed in the Bull
Ring track before last week.
“There were some Pro
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