Back-to-back-to-back: Jefferson overcomes slow start in 8-AAA tourney to win ...

There was nothing normal about the way the region tournament started for Jefferson — but the ending had quite a familiar feel.
Jefferson (23-6) overcame a rare 9-0 blowout loss to Franklin County (22-9) Tuesday by winning four straight games — including three on Thursday — to take its third consecutive region title.
“When we come in and we lose the first game, obviously, that’s not what we’d planned on, but we talked about the fact that we’ve got to put that one behind us and win one at a time,” coach Kacie Bostwick said. “Our kids did a really good job of focusing one game at a time.”
Battling out of the loser’s bracket, the team was tasked with beating a 22-win Franklin County team twice in the region finals, which it did, besting the fourth-seeded Lions 3-1 and 1-0 on Thursday to hoist the 8-AAA trophy in its first year back in the region following a two-year stint in Region 8-AAAA.
The tournament will be remembered for a marathon day in the circle for Dragon pitcher Emily Perrin, who threw all three games on Thursday, allowing just two runs and eight hits with 21 strikeouts in a span of 21 innings.
“Sometimes Perrin throws better as the day goes on,” Bostwick said. “I think it’s more of a confidence thing. We’ve been talking a lot this year about how her teammates have her back. I think today (Thursday) she understood that her teammates really had her back.”
Perrin expressed no feelings of fatigue after it was all over.
“I’m pretty good; I could probably pitch another game,” the senior right-hander said.
Perrin credited the other eight players in the field with her for Thursday’s performance. Jefferson’s defense committed just two errors combined in the two finals wins over Franklin County.
“I just had my defense,” she said. “I needed my defense and they were there.”
Jefferson’s inauspicious start Tuesday, ironically, might have sharpened its focus moving forward through the tournament in the losers’ bracket. Coach Kacie Bostwick and her staff gathered the players around and assured them that all was not lost.
“We talked, actually after that first loss, that a lot of times a loss will build momentum because you’re just scratching and clawing, scratching and clawing,” Bostwick said.
The message was apparently received. The team closed the tournament with four victories by a combined score of 22-4 following the uncharacteristic loss.
Jefferson blasted Morgan County 10-2 Tuesday, then followed with an 8-1 win over rival and defending region champion Jackson County Thursday before pulling off its two region finals wins over Franklin County later in the evening.
Jefferson faced a pivotal fourth inning in its first game with the Lions, who loaded the bases with no outs with the game tied 0-0. But third baseman MacKenzie Turner snagged a line drive and then doubled a runner off third, to record two quick outs in the inning.
“Mac made a great play right there, and it was kind of a momentum building thing,” Bostwick said.
Perrin then forced a pop up to Turner to end the inning and keep Franklin County off the scoreboard.
Franklin County eventually scored in the fifth inning when Peyton Rivers led off the inning with a single and later scored. But Jefferson answered in the sixth when Abby Beatty tripled home pinch runner Paige Kelly and scored when the throw to the plate got away from Lion catcher Presley Chappelear, giving the Dragons a 2-1 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Abby Beatty singled home an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning for Jefferson, which played as the visiting team for both finals games. Beatty went 5-for-8 with six RBIs (smacking a two-run homer against Jackson County) in the three games on Thursday.
It was all Perrin then in the nightcap as she as she delivered a complete-game two-hitter with nine strikeouts. Turner provided the only run of that game with a two-out RBI double in the top of the second.
Perrin said the difference in Thursday’s games with Franklin County and the 9-0 loss to the Lions on Tuesday had a lot to do with the spin she had on the ball and her location.
“I felt my spin a lot more today (Thursday),” she said. “I’m not going to say I was hitting my spots, but nine times out of 10, I was pitching it where it needed to be.”
Perrin will leave the program with three region titles. The latest stood as another joyous moment for her and her fellow seniors.
“My heart is beating so fast,” she said. “I’m so excited.”
Bostwick, who has delivered three region titles in four years on the job, said the three-peat says a lot about the players’ investment in the program.
“(It says) that my kids work hard,” she said. “We come out here, and we coach our kids really hard, but they play really hard. They’ve got great parents, they’ve got great support systems at home, so that makes our job a little easier. But my kids just play hard, and I love them all.”
She also praised the work of her assistant coaches for setting the tone for the season while she was on hiatus from the program after the birth of her child earlier this year.
“My assistant coaches have laid the groundwork for us,” Bostwick said. “Up until this point while I was gone, they did a great job with our kids at the beginning of the season and then kind of allowed me to step back in. I love those guys and girls. They are awesome.”
Jefferson will now face the No. 4 seed out of Atlanta-area Region 5-AAA, Cedar Grove. The winner of that first-round series — which could possibly be played Wednesday and Thursday though no dates have been set — will play a team from either Region 6 or 7 in Round Two.
The Dragons will now refocus quickly on their first-round opponent with the eventual goal of returning to Columbus for the Elite Eight. Jefferson advanced there in 2016 and barely missed out on another trip in 2017.
“Obviously, our goal is to make it down to Columbus,” Bostwick said. “It has been since the beginning of the year. We’re going to take it, again, one game at a time.”
Perrin, who threw 271 pitches on Thursday, can’t wait to get back in the circle and throw some more with hopes for a deep playoff run.
“I’m ready for more games, more wins, more patches (for lettermen’s jackets)” she said.