The post-season run for the Richmond Hill and Bryan County softball teams came to a screeching halt Tuesday as both lost in the second round of the GHSA softball state playoffs.
Richmond Hill was beaten at Dacula, the No. 3 team in Class 6A, 6-5 and 7-1, while Ace Charter of Macon showed the Lady Skins why they are No. 1 in Class A Public with a 4-0, 7-1 doubleheader sweep. The tournament is double elimination.
The underdog Lady Cats led Dacula, 5-3, going into the seventh inning in the opening game only to have the Falcons score twice with one out to post the win.
Daisy Avery’s two out single in the top of the sixth had given Richmond Hill a 5-4 lead after Dacula had scored twice in the fifth to tie the game.
In addition to the 5-4 lead the Lady Cats had also led 3-2 after Aliyah Williams and Kamdyn Richbourg had run-scoring doubles in the fourth. Katie Rearley struck out 10 and walked two while giving up seven hits.
The second game was a frustrating one as Richmond Hill outhit the Falcons, 10-4, but left 10 runners stranded. The Lady Cats led 1-0 after two innings thanks to a single by Lucy Tuttle that scored Brooklyn Meyer in the second.
In their first game the Lady Skins could manage only three hits, two by Mckensie Bailey, as the Gryphons, the state’s only unbeaten team regardless of class, struck first with single runs in the first and second innings and they then locked it up with two in the sixth.
Bryan County dropped a heartbreaker extra inning affair in the second game as Ace scored four times in the top of the inning to move on to the third round of the playoffs.
In the second game the Lady Skins again managed only three hits but took advantage of them along with some shaky Ace fielding.
Bryan County scored in the first when Hayden Joiner was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on a passed ball. In the second Skylar Lee singled and later scored on an error.
After the Gryphons scored three times in the fourth for a 3-2 advantage Pascal Ellison answered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning and that was the way it stood until Ace scored in the seventh to force the extra frame.
The Redskins struck out 25 times in the two games and leading hitter Bekah Johnson was hitless in seven trips to the plate.