COVINGTON, Ga. — Playoff softball began in Covington this week as the No. 1 seed Eastside Lady Eagles defeated the Jones County Lady Greyhounds in three games.

Eastside ended the season with a 21-1 record and 13-1 finish in Region 8-AAAA to earn first place. This allowed for the Lady Eagles to not only get into the playoffs, but to host the first two rounds.

In the opening series, Eastside was paired with the 13-13 Lady Greyhounds, who gave the Lady Eagles all they had through three games.

Game One — Eastside begins postseason with rout

In the first game of the postseason for the Lady Eagles on Wednesday, the offense got it started early.

Following a one-two-three inning from Eva Davis on the mound, a leadoff walk from Donee Morain began a rally.

Two batters later, senior Anslee Saunchegraw tripled into right field to score Morain for an early lead. A RBI single and RBI double followed to make it a 3-0 advantage for the Lady Eagles.

A RBI groundout from Avery Jewell gave Eastside a 4-0 lead heading into the next frame.

After a scoreless second inning from both squads, Allie Vaughn started the third inning with a bang. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Vaughn took the ball to the opposite field and over the right field fence for a home run.

Later in the frame, Savanna Griffin added on with a two-run double to make it a 7-0 lead for Eastside.

Morain scored the eighth and final run of the game in the fifth inning on a walk-off RBI single to give the Lady Eagles the win via run rule.

The Lady Greyhounds did not have many chances at the plate as Davis was on her game in Eastside’s first playoff action of the season.

Jones County's only offensive opportunity came in the fourth inning, where it managed to get two runners on base with only one out. However, a ground ball to Morain at second led to a double play as the junior tagged out the runner advancing to second base and threw out the batter at first to end the inning.

Davis pitched five innings of no run ball as she only surrounded one hit and struck out six batters. The performance for Davis went beyond the mound, too, as she also tallied two hits and one RBI.

Game Two — Jones County deals Lady Eagles their first home loss of the season

When it came time for game two, Jones County dealt Eastside a couple firsts of the season.

By the end of the contest, the Lady Greyhounds became the first team to beat the Lady Eagles at home as well as the first team to hold them scoreless this season. 

Cate Downey took the mound against Eastside in game two and pitched seven scoreless innings for Jones County in the win.

After a walk, a single and an error loaded the bases for the Lady Greyhounds in the third inning, Ensley Barnes sent a single right back up the middle to score two runs and take the lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Myah Briscoe sent an RBI double into left field to make it a 3-0 advantage for Jones County.

Ultimately, the three runs is all it took as the Lady Eagles’ bats just could not put together scoring opportunities. Eastside had multiple good swings throughout game two, but the Lady Greyhounds continued to make the plays defensively to hold them off.

Eastside’s Kylee Lawrence took the mound in game two and pitched six innings and allowed three hits, two earned runs and struck out eight batters.

The split on Wednesday forced a game three at Eastside on Thursday for a chance to advance to the Sweet 16.

Game Three — Eastside’s offense ramps up at the right time

In game three, the Lady Eagles gave the ball to Davis, who fell into a hole in the first inning.

After a strikeout to begin the game, Jones County earned back-to-back walks to put two runners on base. This allowed for Tranasia Parker to bring them both home on a two-out, two-run double to put the Lady Greyhounds ahead in the deciding game.

When it came time for Eastside to come to bat for the first time, it answered.

Vaughn and Saunchegraw both reached base, which allowed Davis to get the two runs back on a two-run double into left field to tie the game.

In the bottom of the second inning, Eastside grabbed the lead and never looked back.

With two runners on base, Morain laced a single into right field to score Jewell for the lead. In the next at-bat, Vaughn scored another run on a sacrifice fly to give the Lady Eagles a 4-2 edge.

After giving up the two runs in the first inning, Davis pitched back-to-back scoreless frames, which allowed the offense to extend the lead even more in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Following a single from Davis, Griffin hit a no-doubt home run that went well over the left-center wall for two-more runs. Before Griffin was halfway to first base, the entire Lady Eagles’ dugout was waiting at home plate to celebrate.

Before the inning could come to a close, a RBI triple from Alyssa Hartman and a RBI single from Morain extended the lead to 8-2.

After falling in game two and trailing early in game three, head coach Heather Wood was happy to see her team make the adjustments to get back into the game when they needed it the most.

“The key for us is making sure we made the adjustments at the plate,” Wood said. “We didn't do a good job of that in the second game yesterday, so that's something we really worked on pre game and also just discussing as a team the ways we can improve and be ready. They made the adjustments today at the plate.”

With a six-run lead in the later innings, Jones County inched closer.

The Lady Greyhounds got two runs back in the ensuing frame on an RBI fielder’s choice and on a wild pitch.

As Eastside still held a four-run advantage, Lawrence added an insurance run on a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to give the Lady Eagles a 9-4 lead.

However, Jones County answered with a run of its own in the next inning to trim the lead down to four once again.

When a walk followed the RBI single, Wood decided to make a pitching change as Lawrence took over for Davis. With the bases loaded, it took only two pitches for Lawrence to escape the jam.

Lawrence went on to pitch a pair of scoreless innings to close out the game with an Eastside win. The final inning was highlighted by a diving grab by Hartman, who went into a full extension to make the grab in left field to prevent an RBI.

The Lady Eagles tallied 12 hits in the game three win. Davis and Hartman had three hits apiece and combined for three RBIs.

Lawrence pitched 2.1 innings of no run, no hit ball to close out the win.

Following the series, Wood made sure to give praise to Davis and Lawrence, who handled all of the pitching duties.

‘They did a great job — they kept us in the game. Overall, I am proud of their performances, they did a great job on the mound,’ Wood said. “It helps when we are hitting, that takes a lot of pressure off our pitchers and that is something we weren;t able to do yesterday in the second game, so i think us offensively being explosive and coming out ready to go played a big factor in our win today.”

What’s Next

The Lady Eagles will get just under a week to prepare for the Sweet 16 as they will take on the Perry Lady Panthers (19-8, 5-1 Region 1-AAAA) in the second round of the Class AAAA playoffs Tuesday, Oct. 22. With Eastside being a No. 1 seed, it means that the Lady Eagles will once again host the playoff series.

The Lady Panthers swept North Springs in the first round with a pair of wins (10-2 and 17-2).