The quest for the gold continues Thursday morning for EC

For the East Coweta Lady Indians, the pursuit for a state championship may begin Thursday morning at the Elite Eight Tournament in Columbus, but the quest for gold began sooner.
Try almost 12 months ago after the 2016 season ended with a 1-0 loss to Mill Creek in extra innings.
The Lady Indians began offseason workouts that continued into 2017 and as late July rolled around, they took the field for preseason workouts.
Next, the season began on August 11 with a 13-2 win over the Lassiter Lady Trojans in a rematch of a 2016 Elite Eight game then a 3-0 win over Hillgrove on that same evening.

After 77 days since those victories along with 30 more, the 2017 quest for gold began with a bus ride Wednesday afternoon from school and will get underway on the field with a 9:00 game against the Archer Lady Tigers in the first game of the AAAAAAA tournament at the South Commons Softball Complex.
In the event of an EC win, the Lady Indians will face the winner of the contest between Kennesaw Mountain or Lambert in a Thursday night winners bracket game beginning at 7:00 otherwise it is an elimination game Friday morning at 10:00 against the loser of that matchup.
For now it is one game at a time as the Lady Indians look to meet the mantra of beating everybody on the way to the state championship that has been elusive over the past two years and that begins with the Lady Tigers.
The Archer Lady Tigers come into the tournament with a record of 22-10 overall after series wins over Norcross and 2016 champion North Gwinnett.
Among the common opponents are Hillgrove (Archer 1-1, EC 3-0) and North Gwinnett (Archer 2-2, EC 1-0).
Archer and East Coweta have met before as the Lady Indians defeated the Lady Tigers 7-4 during the Elite Eight on October 29, 2015.
In that contest,
Among the key players for head coach Eric Stoker are senior pitcher/first baseman Madison Abell, junior pitcher Kaitlin Berry, senior third baseman Terrica Williams, freshman second baseman Skylar Berkhiser, junior outfelder Kinley Stewart, freshman infielder Faith Barth and catcher Casey Sims.
Williams was recognized by the Gwinnett Diamond Club as the county's offensive player of the year after producing a .540 batting average with 12 home runs and 47 RBIs.
Barth was named to the all-county south squad in her first year by the same organization while Moore and Sims were named to the squad as honorable mentions.
Barth, who comes into the game with a .440 average broke a 1-1 tie with a grand slam and finished with five RBIs in a 7-5 victory over Grayson on September 28, and had five hits, a home run and six RBIs in a doubleheader sweep of South Gwinnett two days prior.
Her efforts garnered athlete of the week by the Gwinnett Daily Post.
As for the next tournament game...
The Kennesaw Mountain Lady Mustangs have been to Columbus on a number of occasions including 2012 runnerup under head coach Lisa Chapman who is in her 18th season and early in the season recorded her 400th win with the program.
This season, Chapman saw her Lady Mustangs begin the campaign 0-4 before starting a 22-3 streak as they enter the tournament with a 22-7 mark.
Kennesaw Mountain enters the Elite Eight after series wins over Woodstock and Camden County.
Among her key players are junior pitcher Haley Glass.
In the first round of the state playoffs, Glass came within a walk away from a perfect game last Saturday as the Lady Mustangs beat Woodstock in the deciding game of their series. She was also solid at the plate with a 2-for-3 that included a double and two RBIs.
She was honored as player-of-the-week by the Marietta Daily Journal this week.
Other key players for the Lady Mustangs are junior outfielder Mallory Parker,senior infielder Mallory Lewis, junior shortstop Hannah Forehand, Boo Huddleston and senior catcher Michy Ramos.
The last game played between the Lady Indians and Lady Mustangs was on October 26, 2013 with KM winning 3-2.
The Lambert Lady Longhorns enter the tournamofent with a record of  20-11 after series wins over Mill creek and Brookwood in the playoffs.
The Lady Longhorns met the Lady Indians in a contest played on September 1 at Home Plate in Peachtree City with EC winning by a 4-1 margin to support the pitching of Rachel Vaughan.
Lambert has since recovered from this defeat having defeated Mill Creek and Brookwood in the state playoffs.
Among the key players are pitcher Kassiday Krupit who had a home run against EC and a game winner the same night against Chapel Hill.
Krupit has also pitched all 35 innings in Lambert's playoff run.
Other key players for head coach Brooks Youngblood are senior second baseman Skylar Aledia, sophomore shortstop Brooke Miller and catcher Rachel Cowart.