COLUMBUS, Ga. — Around this time last year, eight seniors played their final game for the Eastside Lady Eagles’ softball program. That left a lot of slots open for other players to step in and fill right away.
Of the replacements on the varsity roster, four juniors, four sophomores and five freshmen stepped up for the Lady Eagles.
Despite having a young squad, the Lady Eagles made a run in the state playoffs for Class AAAAA and finished No. 6 in the state.
Head coach Heather Wood was not surprised at all by what her team accomplished this season.
“Honestly, we’re right on schedule,” Wood said. “Yes, we got some close wins and won Super Regionals. But I think it brings about more confidence. We are a Columbus team and we were meant to be there this season and we hope to continue to have the opportunity to go next year.”
Eastside found itself in a few low scoring, defensive battles while in Columbus.
The Lady Eagles came out on the losing end on day one in a 1-0 loss against Harris County. The next day, on Oct. 27, they kept their season alive with a 2-1 win over Villa Rica.
But Eastside faced all-too-familiar foe Loganville — which won Region 8-AAAAA’s championship the past two seasons — on Friday. The Lady Devils eliminated the Lady Eagles 11-1.
Wood expressed her pride in how the team traveled down there to South Commons Softball Complex and competed.
“To see the growth from them as a team since the beginning of the season is very rewarding,” Wood said. “I think advancing to Columbus gives us a lot of confidence going into next season. We’ve been trying so hard to get to the Elite Eight and we finally showed that it was possible.”
Eastside’s had an up and down regular season competing in Region 8-AAAAA. However, the Lady Eagles slid into the No. 4 seed with an 11-7 region record, which was two games better than fifth place Jefferson and one game behind third place Flowery Branch.
As the No. 4 seed, Eastside went to Cartersville for the Super Regionals. The Lady Eagles defeated No. 1 Cartersville 12-0 in the first game and turned around to defeat No. 2 Kell 4-1.
Bouncing back from an 11-9 defeat against Kell earlier on Oct. 21, Eastside won 8-3 to advance to Columbus.
Even though it wasn’t in the cards for Eastside to win and keep its season going past Loganville, Wood stressed the importance of what the Columbus experience means to the returning players.
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“It’s priceless,” Wood said. “It’s so valuable to their growth and development as players and that will allow us to prepare and really hit the ground running for next season. One thing that stuck out to me is seeing how our younger players handled pressure moments in the postseason.
“It allows the girls to see that they can compete with anyone at the state and gives them a confidence boost going into future years.”
But more so than that, Wood believes the players better understand the expectation.
“They’ve worked hard at representing our program,” Wood said. “They have that understanding of what it means to wear an Eastside softball uniform and be a part of the tradition we’ve had here at Eastside.”
Eastside enters the offseason with nearly 90% of its roster expected to return for 2023. Wood said that the plan is to start offseason workouts sometime in February.
And getting a taste of Columbus and putting together a postseason run just fuels the Lady Eagles’ aspirations for 2023.
“We want to focus on ways to get better,” Wood said. “We see the potential this team has and how far this team can go. We want to set high expectations for them and we want to put a lot of work in the offseason to get better. And we really want to motivate the players for a state championship run for next season.”
