Lady Braves poised for postseason run

Pictured above (L-R) are Senior Lady Braves Taylor Paris, Haley Bennett, Sydney Gay, Alexus Crawford, Kaitlyn Baldwin, and Lora Glover. (Photo: Penny Hood/HCHS)

(Franklin, GA) — A senior night 4-0 win over rival Callaway secured home field advantage for the Lady Braves entering next week’s Region 5-AA tournament.

The tournament will take place at HCHS next Thursday, October 4 with the Lady Braves battling the No. 4 region seed at noon. The No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will do battle at 2:00 PM.

The losers of those two games will meet in the third place game at 4:00 Pm followed by the Region 5-AA Championship game at 6:00 PM.

Although the Lady Braves have secured the top seed, the final week of the regular season and play-in game next week will determine seeds 2-4.

The Lady Braves dropped games to Class AAAA No. 2 Central and Class A Private No. 2 Wesleyan in addition to another region win over Temple on Tuesday.

The Lady Braves will get a strong test at home tomorrow when they host the Class AA No. 1 ranked Rockmart Yellow Jackets in a match-up of teams that could meet again in Columbus.

Senior Haley Bennett and Sydney Gay combined on the shutout versus the Lady Cavs with Bennett earning the win while allowing just one hit and one walk and striking out two.

At the plate, senior Lora Glover drove home two with a triple and Marissa Garza added two hits.

Freshman Mackenzie White had a huge day at the plate in a 4-2 home loss to Central Wednesday going 4-for-4, Sydney Gay and Katelyn Jiles both pitched well in the loss with Gay allowing just one hit and one walk in three innings.

Garza had a HR and two RBI’s to lead the offense in Tuesday’s 5-0 win at Temple. Bennett started and earned the win and Caroline Jones was sharp tossing three innings of scoreless relief while striking out five.

The Lady Braves will also host Carrollton Wednesday before traveling to Lamar County for the regular season finale on Thursday.

Although the Lady Braves defeated Lamar earlier this season and Bremen twice, the three wins were only by a total of four runs so the going will be tough at the region tourney.

State playoff seedings will be determined by the outcome of the tournament with Region 5-AA set to face off with Region 8-AA in the first round best-of-three tilts October 9-12.