Blowout the word for Northgate, Newnan and EC in softball wins

On Monday, a post was placed in Facebook was posted by the Northgate Lady Vikings page encouraging players to get their homework done, call it an early night and be ready to play Tuesday.
While it is unknown if the homework was done, but the Lady Vikings managed to be well rested Tuesday evening as they had no trouble with the Whitewater Lady Wildcats in a 12-0 Region 3-AAAAA victory that clinched top seed for the upcoming tournament.
The Lady Vikings (12-2, 7-0) did a lot of damage in the bottom of the second inning as Ebonee Echols led off with a single, stole second and went to third on a bunt single by Jordan Hamilton before coming home on a one out bunt single by MacKenzie McCloud who advanced to second on a throw into the infield.
After a strikeout, Brenna Skalski singled Hamilton home with the second run of the inning while McCloud went to third. Which allowed Skalski to move to second when the throw came in.
Northgate took a 4-0 lead as Carly Alderman singled McCloud and Skalski home and Jenna Pealor finished the scoring with a two-run home run that also forced a pitching change by Whitewater.
The Lady Vikings were not done scoring as Echols and Hamilton singled and Jessica Houk followed with a groundout to first that brought Echols home from third while Hamilton moved to third before she came home on a passed ball.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Northgate added to the lead after making wholesale substitutions who contributed to the attack.
Pealor and Reagan Kinsch reached on consecutive one-out singles and both came home on a triple by Jessica Cochran who would score on a single by Lauren DeLoach.
Rachel Cook reached on a walk and after a force play retired DeLoach at third, would score on an error by the Whitewater catcher that ended the game.
Benefiting from the rest and run support was Northgate starting pitcher McKenzie Peace who allowed three hits, walked two and recorded five strikeouts in four innings.
The term blowout seemed to be the word of the afternoon Tuesday for all three Coweta schools as East Coweta and Newnan clinched the top seeds for the upcoming Region 3-AAAAAA tournament with easy wins.
The Newnan Lady Cougars clinched the top spot for the tournament with a 20-5 win at home over the Langston Hughes Lady Panthers while the East Coweta Lady Indians clinched the number two spot with a 17-0 three-inning win and for good measure won a non-region second game by the same score.
In the Lady Cougars win, a nine-run first inning paced the victory then five in the bottom of the second and six in the final inning.
Colton and Stewart each had three hits while Leslie Davis had two.
Shania Colton had a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning while Lindsey Stewart hit a grand slam to key the scoring in the frame.
Colton led the Lady Cougars with five RBIs, Stewart, Davis and Lauren Ferguson each had four and Frances Arnall had one.
Emily Allen pitched the first two innings of the game for the Lady Cougars and recorded three strikeouts while Courtney Darrow and Colton hurled in the top of third when the Lady Panthers scored all of their runs
The win improved the Lady Cougars overall mark to 12-4.
In the Lady Indians’ initial win at Douglasville, four runs in first and second innings and a nine-run third did the damage as well as the long ball as Katey Lynch, Maggie Morrow and Reba Jones each had a home run.
Pitching also made the opener finish sooner as Morgan Goree retired all nine batters she faced with six going down by strikeout.
Lynch had three hits and five RBIs in the game while Hailey Baswell and Morrow each finished with a pair of hits.
In the nightcap which didn‘t count in the region standings, the Lady Indians scored 10 runs in the second inning and seven in the third inning.
Gabby Freed had three hits and three RBIs including a home run while Madison Carter had two hits and scored three runs.
Kaylin Wall and Kayla Vincent combined on the shutout recording four strikeouts.
The Lady Indians improve to 11-4 on the season.
All three teams will be busy this week as they compete in the Brookwood Invitational Tournament which is spread out through Gwinnett County.
East Coweta will face Peachtree Ridge at Brookwood tonight while Newnan will play two games Friday night at Lanier High School and three at North Gwinnett.
Northgate will play twice on Friday at South Gwinnett before playing three games (at Archer High School) on Saturday.