Lady Braves vault to No. 1 state ranking in Class AA

The Lady Braves with special guests the 8U Coweta Select following Thursday’s region home win over Temple (Photo: Heard County Braves Softball)

(Franklin, GA) — The Lady Braves improved to 3-0 in Region 5-AA play this week and were finally rewarded for a stellar start to the season with a No. 1 ranking in this week’s AJC/Score Atlanta softball rankings.

The Lady Braves were initially ranked No. 6 in the Class AA preseason poll, but in a peculiar move, the pollsters had dropped the Lady Braves to No. 10 in the second poll of the season despite the Lady Braves being undefeated at the point in time with several quality wins over ranked opponents.

The narrative released with Thursday’s poll did admit that the week two poll had been skewed.

The 4-3 Region 5-AA win at Callaway Tuesday along with a 13-0 region win over Temple Thursday in Franklin puts the Lady Braves in the driver’s seat for home field advantage in the region tourney if they continue to play well in the second half of the season.

A road trip to Bremen on September 15 looms will loom large in the standings down the stretch.

The Lady Braves (7-1, 3-0) did drop their first game of the season at Newnan Wednesday falling 13-5 against the Class AAAAAAA Cougars.

In Tuesday’s win at Callaway, LilyRae Fulford earned the win after tossing 6 and 2/3 innings in relief without surrendering a run.

Freshman hurler Chloe Scarbrough earned her first career varsity win in Thursday’s four inning win over Temple. Scarbrough allowed just two hits and struck out three in the shutout victory.

Courtney Cannon, Janiyah Strong, and Emma Helton led the offense in Tuesday’s win at Callaway. Cannon went 3-for-3 with a stolen base while Helton went 3-for-4 with a triple and two doubles. Strong drove home three runs with a triple and a single and also swiped a base.

In Thursday’s blowout win over the Tigers, five different Lady Braves drove in at least two runs while four Lady Braves recorded multiple hits.

Helton and Mackenzie White each had two hits and drove home two while Strong had two doubles and drove home three. Zekylah Boyd had two hits and drove home one and senior Sydney Goddard drove home two.

Helton, Cannon, Abigail Lathrop and Taylor Bailey each had a stolen base.

Hannah Wright had a base hit and scored twice and freshman Aubrey Ussery had one hit and scored a run.

The Lady Braves will return to action this Wednesday when they travel to Villa Rica for a make-up of an earlier rain out.

The squad will return to region play at Haralson County Thursday before competing at the Trojan Slam Friday and Saturday in Carrollton.