Muscogee Madness to begin Thursday afternoon

East Coweta junior Rachel Vaughan shown mugging for the camera after the Lady Indians won the
Region 2-AAAAAAA Tournament. The pitcher/first baseman is normally all business on the field and will demonstrate that style Thursday in the Elite Eight Tournament.  .

The trophy does not have a name like those rewarded in the National Football League, the National  Basketball Association or the famed Lord Stanley’s Cup in the National Hockey League.

However, for 64 high school softball teams in the state of Georgia, the stakes are considered to be as high and the eight winners of this trophy on Saturday can be identified under two words.

State Champion.

Beginning Thursday, the East Coweta Lady Indians would like to be one of the surviving eight as they will be appearing in their 11th Elite Eight Tournament in 13 years at the South Commons Complex.

Last season, the Lady Indians finished third while in 2008 they finished the season as the runnerup to Mill Creek who is also in the AAAAAAA division of the tournament.

As the bus leaves Sharpsburg, they will face a number of tough teams who have made the trek to Columbus before.

The first team that is standing in the way is the South Forsyth War Eagles in a contest beginning at 4:00 on Thursday with a Friday battle with either Lambert or Lassiter in the double elimination event.

After sweeping Collins Hill, the Lady Indians enter the first game with a 28-4 record while the War Eagles come into the first round game with a 18-12 record after taking two out of three games in a series against Kennesaw. Mountain.

The two teams met last October in the Elite Eight with the Lady Indians coming away with a 6-3 victory as Kelley Lynch tossed a seven-hitter while also hitting a home run.

The loss ended the season for South Forsyth.

The Bracket

In their series with KM, the War Eagles needed to come back from a 5-2 deficit in the seventh when they rallied with four runs before winning the deciding game 14-8 in extra innings.

Among their leading players are senior pitcher Katherine Huey, junior infielder Jordyn Harris and Sarah Womack.

In the KM series, Harris drove home the winning run in the second game while Huey was the winning pitcher in the contest.

Harris was selected as player of the year in 2015 by the Forsyth News along with a number of other honors after a batting average of .446 with 18 extra base hits and setting three team records while leading the War Eagles to the 2015 Elite Eight.

Harris was 1-for-3 in the 2015 game between EC while Huey pitched all seven innings allowing 11 hits.

In terms of common opponents, both have faced Buford (both teams lost) and Woodstock (EC swept them in the first round series while SF lost to them).

Regardless of Thursday’s outcome, one will face Lassiter while the other will face Lambert with the winner’s bracket game starting at 9:00 am and the loser’s bracket game starting at 1:00 pm.

The Lassiter Lady Trojans come into the tournament for the fifth time in seven years with a 25-5 record after state playoff series wins over Newnan and Grayson.

Among the leading players for the Lady Trojans are senior pitcher Piper Wagner who tossed a six-hitter against the Lady Cougars in a 4-3 10 inning win that also saw her record 10 strikeouts.

Another leader is Blake Neleman who held the Lady Cougars to three hits while recording 14 strikeouts in a 7-2 first game win in that series where she hit a home run.

Neieman also hit a home run in the second game of that series.

One other key player for Lassiter is Shannon Antonini who also hit a home run in the Newnan series and was an all-region player in 2015.

Lassiter faced EC in the first round of the Elite Eight in October of 2012.

Meanwhile, the Lambert Lady Longhorns come in at 25-3 after cruising through series wins over Lakeside-Dekalb and Hillgrove by a cumulative score of 38-0.

Like most teams, the Lady Longhorns have an ace in Kassidy Krupit and someone who can go yard in Marissa Guimbarda who has hit 18 home runs going into the tournament.

Guimbarda hit three home runs in the series with Hillgrove while Krupit tossed all 12 innings in the series without allowing a run and recording nine strikeouts.

The Lady Longhorns and Lady Indians have never met.

Lambert and Lassiter will meet at 2:00 prior to the EC-South Forsyth game

A little EC championship tournament trivia

What do Heard, Pike, Northside-Columbus, Buford, Starr's Mill, Whitewater, Union Grove,Alexander and Chapel Hill have in common?
They were on the 2016 schedule (Pike was cancelled due to rain) and all are going to be in Columbus for the tournament with Chapel Hill coming in as a 2015 champion.
How did the Lady Indians do in this gauntlet?
Not bad as they had a record of 7-3 with Columbus being the only other EC blemish on the 2016 schedule.