Senior baseball, softball all stars fall at state

The softball squad advanced all the way to the state finals, downing West Point in the tournament opener 11-4, losing to Harris County 7-6 Sunday, defeating Western 12-6 Monday, before dropping a heart-breaker to Harris County 7-6 in nine innings Tuesday.

Madison County, which led 6-4 in the fifth Tuesday, held a one-run lead with two outs in the seventh inning, but a dropped popup on the final out of the game left Harris County alive. And Madison County fell in extra innings in the championship.
Senior softball manager Lance Wade said the Tuesday loss was very tough to take, but he praised his team’s play in the district and state tournaments.

“This is a good group of girls,” said Wade. “They are just heartbroken … All of them played really good.”

Cheyenne Pridgen doubled and Kayla Argo tripled in the loss.

Madison County advanced to the finals with a dramatic victory Monday night. Trailing 4-3 in the top of the seventh inning, Madison County rallied for nine runs to pull away from Western.

“Everybody hit the ball,” said Wade. “We sent 12 or 13 batters to the plate that inning.”

Tatum Harris also stood out for Madison County this past week, smacking a solo shot over the fence in Sunday’s game.
In guys’ action, the senior league baseball team dropped two games in the tournament at Lakeside High School, falling 11-0 to Elbert County and 12-4 to West Point.

Hayden Carey and Keagan Whittington managed the only two hits for Madison County against Elbert. Lee Griffeth, Zach Pilgrim and Silase Mclendon had the only hits for Madison County against West Point.

“Those were two really good teams,” said Madison County head coach Wes Roberts. “We were just outmatched. The Elberton team is basically their high school team.”

Roberts said he is proud of his squad’s accomplishments, particularly the resilience the club showed in the district tournament, winning four straight after an opening loss.

“I know everyone is disappointed about state, but when they step back from it in years to come, I think they can be proud of coming back through the losers’ bracket and then run ruling Toccoa in both games. The guys will look back and appreciate what we accomplished. All in all it was a good run.”