East Coweta defeats Whitewater in non-region softball matchup

Lady Indians catcher Reba Jones lays down a sacrifice bunt in the top of the third inning that led to a run in East Coweta's 8-6 victory over the Whitewater Lady Wildcats.

The East Coweta Lady Indians took adavantage of early miscues to take a lead that stood throughout Tuesday night as they defeated the Whitewater Lady Wildcats 8-6 in a non-region road contest.
The game was originally scheduled to be played Saturday as part of the Georgia Dugout Club but was called off in the second inning due to rain.
With no rain in the neighborhood, Kia Smith led off the game for the Lady Indians (2-1)  with a single to left and stole second prior to Mekhia Freeman reaching base on a walk.
Shemiah Sanchez followed and loaded the bases when she was hit by a pitch and with one out, problems began for the Lady Wildcats (4-1) as a wild pitch by starting pitcher Sarah Middleton allowed Smith to score while Freeman came home on a throwing error by the catcher.
Meanwhile, Sanchez advanced two bases on the two iscues and was able to score the third and final run of the inning as Reba Jones lined a single to center field.
The Lady Wildcats came back with a run in the bottom of the second inning as Brielle Grubbs led off with a walk and eventually scored on a two-out single by Breanna Burgett.
However, the Lady Indians responded in the top of the third inning as Freeman reached on a walk and stole two bases before coming home when a ball hit by Sanchez was mishandled by the Lady Wildcats second baseman.
After Katey Lynch was hit by a pitch, Bailey Schmieder had the first of two sacrifice bunts in the game and and Lauren Liebe followed with a groundout that scored Sanchez.
Whitewater rallied in the bottom of the frame as East Coweta starting pitcher Morgan Goree walked the first two batters and surrendered an RBI single to Kim Perkins and after a walk and a line drive hit to Gracelynn Newmon at third, the margin was cut to 5-3 after an RBI groundout.
In the top of the fourth inning, the Lady Indians widened the margin to 7-3 as Hailey Baswell reached first after being hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a sacrifice by Schmieder and to third on a groundout before Smith walked and stole second.
Freeman followed with a shallow flyball that saw the ball drop as the shortstop and left fielder collide allowing Schmieder and Smith to score.
The Lady Wildcats scored a run in the bottom of the fourth inning but the Lady Indians got the run back in the top of the sixth inning when Baswell reached on an error and eventually scored on a two-out single by Smith.
Benefitting from the run support was Goree who struggled with control early but settled down to retire nine of 10 batters from fourth inning to the bottom of the seventh.
After retiring the first batter in the bottom of the seventh, Goree saw her streak end as she surrendered a single to Kaylee Southers and a home run by Perkins over the center field fence.
After a conference with pitching coach Danny Chocallo, Goree settled back intoher groove needing only three pitches to retire the final two batters of the game.
Next for the Lady Indians will be a trip to Columbus to face Northside.