Lady Braves split four games at Trojan Slam

(Carrollton, GA) — The Lady Braves softball team split four games at the Trojan Slam tourney in Carrollton over the weekend winning two games on Friday before dropping two on Saturday.

In the most impressive win, the Lady Braves knocked off the No. 6 ranked team in Class AAAA Flowery Branch by a final score of 13-0 in four innings.

Senior Caroline Jones started the game in the circle and delivered her most impressive performance of the season. She allowed just one hit in the contest and struck out four while throwing 41 of her 56 total pitches for strikes to earn the win.

Several girls led the way offensively including sophomore Mackenzie White who went 2-for-4 at the plate with a home run and four runs batted in.

Janiyah Strong had a solid game with three hits and two RBI’s while Hannah Holden, Z Boyd and Tori Caldwell also tallied multiple hits. Emma Helton drove in three runs on a base hit and a sacrifice fly.

Sophomore Lady Brave third baseman Janiyah Strong (Photo: HCHS Softball)

In the nightcap Friday, the Lady braves battled back from an early deficit to knock off fellow Class AA foe Chattooga 8-7.

Katelyn Jiles earned the win in relief with a solid performance where she allowed no runs, hits, or walks in two plus innings.

Emma Helton and Mackenzie White did most of the damage offensively. Helton was 3-for-4 with two stolen bases while White went 2-for-3 with another homer and three more RBI’s.

On Saturday, the team fell 3-2 to a tough Hillgrove squad and 4-2 to Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe. Jiles pitched well versus Hillgrove and Helton had two more base hits. In the loss to Lakeview, Janiyah Strong homered.

Coach Matt Hornsby says the team can’t afford to make so many mistakes as the season soon advances towards the playoffs.

“While we’ve been winning games and playing good softball over the last couple of weeks, we’re still making too many defensive mistakes and mental mistakes. Half of our lineup will have a good approach at the plate and then the other half it’s like they are not even watching the game and have no clue,” said Hornsby after the tournament.

“We’ve told them if you play a good team you’re going to get exposed. If we expect to compete at a high level which starts with a region title then that’s tough. Bremen and Lamar are both really good teams and if we play like we did this weekend we won’t win a region title. We’ve just got to get back to work including us coaches with a good game plan on Monday.”

The Lady Braves will get back to Region 5-AA competition on Tuesday when they host the Temple Tigers at HCHS (5:30 PM) before traveling to Callaway Thursday (5:30 PM).

The Lady Braves will be at the University of West Georgia this Saturday to face off with Union County at 11:00 AM and then Newnan at 3:00 PM.