COVINGTON, Ga. – While the sky was clear at Eastside High School on Monday, it was raining home runs, as the Eastside Lady Eagles swept the East Forsyth Lady Broncos to claim their second consecutive region championship.

It has been a remarkable year for the Lady Eagles, finishing the regular season 19-1, with the sole loss coming to the Lady Broncos earlier this month.

Coming into Monday, the Lady Eagles needed to defeat the Lady Broncos twice in order to claim the Region 8-AAAA title. A back-and-forth game saw Eastside pull away in the later innings to win Game 1 10-4. From that point forward, it was all Eastside as an offensive clinic ended the game in four innings to grab the 14-2 victory in Game 2.

The Lady Eagles hit for six home runs combined through both games; three from junior Allie Vaughn, two from senior Anslee Saunchegraw and one from junior Kylee Lawrence. Lawrence also accounted for eight strikeouts on the mound through both games.

Eastside pulls away late in competitive first game

The homers began to fly early as Vaughn and Saunchegraw both scored back-to-back home runs to begin the first inning. Following an RBI double from Lawrence, the Lady Eagles started out with a 3-0 lead.

East Forsyth answered in the second inning after a single RBI from McKenna Hall.

But the Lady Eagles continued to bring the pressure with two RBI doubles from Lawrence and Avery Jewell.

The Lady Broncos had their best offensive outing of the night in the top of the fourth inning when Tatum Porter singled a hard ground ball, which resulted in two RBI’s to bring the game to 5-3. Emma Smallwood brought the game within one at 5-4 following an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning.

The momentum, however, was stopped in the top of the sixth following three strikeouts from Lawrence to send the Lady Eagles back on offense.

Once again the Lady Eagles found paydirt from the bat of Vaughn, hitting her second home run of the night to bring the score to 8-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning. A double from Jewell led to two more RBI’s to set the score at 10-4 heading into the seventh frame.

The Lady Broncos’ chances for a comeback victory ended in the glove of Donee Morain, as the Lady Eagles took Game 1.

Offensive clinic leads to Game 2 victory in four innings

Following a brief intermission, the Lady Eagles picked up right where they left off, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning.

The Lady Broncos answered in the bottom of the inning, with two RBI’s from Smallwood and Bennett, respectively, to put the score at 3-2.

Eastside took the game up an offensive notch with a two-RBI single from Eva Davis, followed by a home run from Lawrence to put the game at 7-2.

The offensive clinic continued in inning No. 3, with three consecutive scoring plays. The first coming from a single RBI by Morain, and the next two coming off the bats of Vaughn and Saunchegraw for back-to-back home runs.

Emilie Jernigan added one more RBI to settle the inning at 13-2.

A fly ball triple from Smallwood gave the Lady Broncos some hope, but the Lady Eagles handled business and left East Forsyth scoreless in the third inning.

The bats continued to fly in the top of the fourth inning, with Saunchegraw bringing in the final RBI of the night.

East Forsyth looked to answer in the bottom of the fourth frame, but it was not to be as Lawrence delivered the final two strikeouts of the night to clinch the Region 8-AAAA championship.

Eagles stress team effort as key to historic season

Lady Eagles head coach Heather Wood stressed that the performance from both games was as a result of the team working together.

“It was a complete team effort, and all around we found a way to come up with those timely hits and also capitalized when we had runners and scoring position,” Wood said.

Finishing at 5-8 for on the plate with three home runs, seven RBIs and four runs, Vaughn said the key to the Eagles season has been putting in the work, even when others are not.

“Just hard work,” Vaughn said. “We practice even when other teams aren’t practicing, on Fridays before football games and just whenever we can, we go to the cages. And not just when we have practice, some of the girls will like text and we’ll just come here and hit.”

Lawrence finished the two-game slate 6-8 at the plate with one home run, four RBIs and two runs with zero ER and eight strikeouts on the mound. She echoed her coach in stating that the championship win is a result of a full team effort, while also expressing her enthusiasm for the rest of the postseason.

“We’re winning every moment,” Lawrence said. “Every pitch. Every play. Every swing. We’re winning everything one at a time, as a team.”

Wood feels that this team is ready to make a deep postseason run, and possibly claim a state title.

“We’ve been preparing for this all season, and even at the end of last season,” Wood said. “With this group, we’ve been very fortunate they had made it to Columbus the past two seasons, so we’re looking past just getting there – not just being content with getting to Columbus – we’re looking at what we can do and what we can accomplish when we get there.”