Eastside’s 2023 softball squad featured numerous juniors, sophomores and freshmen. But there are two players who served as senior leaders to help accomplish one of the team’s goals this year — Win the Region 8-AAAAA championship. 

Dezaria “Z” Johnson and Lila Whitmire both shared how special it was to win the region crown before they graduate from the program.

“It’s bittersweet,” Whitmire said. “Every year we’ve been here, we’ve gone deeper and deeper in the playoffs. We’ve never been region champs while I’ve been here, so it’s very bittersweet and I’m very happy I get to experience that as a senior.” 

Johnson credited the team’s cohesiveness to help pave the way to the title. 

“It took, not just one individual, but it took the whole team all in one,” Johnson said. “All the work we put in on the field to get there played a big part.” 

The Lady Eagles concluded the regular season with a Region 8-AAAAA best 19-5 overall record alongside a 15-3 mark in region action. 

Eastside swept region foes Winder-Barrow, Flowery Branch and Clarke Central. Then, it won two out of three versus Heritage, Loganville and Jefferson. 

According to both seniors, the two series wins against Loganville and Jefferson carry more meaning. In fact, Johnson can remember finishing off the Lady Red Devils with a strikeout on Oct. 9. 

“That will probably be one of the best games I have played all around. Striking out that last batter, it felt like we had just won the championship,” Johnson said. “Playing Loganville all these four years and losing against them a lot and finally being able to win the series against Loganville was great.” 

Whitmire cosigned this saying, “The final out of each of those games is ingrained in my mind.” 

It was not a clear path to the top of the standings, however. There were some intense battles along the way. 

Eastside edged Heritage out 4-3 at home on Aug. 31. A week later, the Lady Eagles downed Jefferson 7-6 in nine innings of action. In the series finale at Jefferson on Sept. 28, Eastside won again 13-12. 

The Lady Eagles’ final region win of 2023 was an 8-7 defeat of Loganville. 

There were some lopsided victories mixed in, too. 

On Aug. 28, Eastside defeated Clarke Central 19-0 followed by a 13-1 triumph at Winder-Barrow on Sept. 5. A 13-0 win ensued against Clarke Central on Sept. 19 with a 12-0 victory coming in Athens on Oct. 5. 

In fact, the latest victory at Clarke Central clinched the Region 8-AAAAA championship for the Lady Eagles. 

Whitmire believes facing such opponents three times apiece in one season has made her and her teammates better, as a result. 

“The more you face tough competition, the better that you’re going to be. Our region is well known for having tough competition,” Whitmire said. “So every time we were faced with a tough opponent, we found out something about ourselves, we were able to learn from it quickly and bounce back from it.”  

This makes it three seasons in a row that the Lady Eagles have qualified for the postseason. But there is one vast difference compared to last year’s playoff berth to this year. 

Eastside will enter as the No. 1 seed this go round whereas last year they advanced as the No. 4 seed. 

With the three-seed difference, Whitmire stressed that the mindset has altered from the team’s approach a season ago. 

“Last year, we felt like other teams were going to underestimate us,” Whitmire said. “But this year being the one seed, we know people are going to play their best softball against us. We’re really going to have to bring it every game, because they know how good we are this year.” 

Now, instead of traveling to Super Regionals, the Lady Eagles will host the postseason tournament from Oct. 16-17.

But Eastside players have aspirations to return to the South Commons Softball Complex in Columbus for the state tournament. 

The Lady Eagles experienced playing in Columbus last season, which brought about some important lessons for the players. 

“Last year, I feel like we settled once we found out we made it to state. But I feel like this year the mindset is, ‘Foot on gas. No letting up,’” Johnson said. “We are a big target. Everybody is going to be targeting Eastside. So we have no room to let up. The foot has to be on gas the whole way through.” 

Eastside’s aggressive approach to the 2023 postseason is fueling the Lady Eagles to bring home another piece of hardware before the season is done. 

The Lady Eagles are confident that they can make another push in Columbus and finish on top. 

“We can go further than we think,” Johnson said. “We have what it takes to win it all. We’ve been putting in enough work and now even more work heading into state.”