The Greene County 8U All-Star softball team won its Georgia Recreation and Parks Department state championship tournament on June 22 at Putnam County’s Poole Recreation Center.
The Greene County girls won five games in a single day to reach the championship against Heard County, which went into the final round with an undefeated record. The girls of Greene knocked off Heard County in back-to-back games to claim the title.
Greene County head coach Jared Norton was happy the girls won the title, but said he was most impressed with how they persevered to reach the championship round.
“It was a pretty amazing feat to accomplish, especially for girls this young,” Norton said. “I am extremely proud of our girls for fighting through and winning all five games in such convincing fashion.”
Putnam County won the opening game of the state tournament on Wednesday over Greene, relegating Greene County to the loser’s bracket and forcing Norton’s squad to kick things into high gear.
Greene County was scheduled to play an elimination game later the same day against Jasper County, but due to inclement weather that contest was moved to the next day.
On Thursday, Greene County doubled up with an 18-9 thumping of Jasper County to advance an hour later against District 6 champion Lumpkin County, where they earned a mercy-ruled 22-9 victory.
That set up Greene with a rematch against Putnam County. Norton’s squad had previously defeated Putnam in the District 7 area tournament before moving on to state. So, this rematch with Putnam County, which had lost to Heard County 16-6 earlier that same day, was Greene’s most important game of the entire postseason.
In its third win of the day, Greene 8U defeated Putnam County in another 18-9 contest to advance to the double-elimination state championship round, where Heard County waited.
“We had to beat everybody else out of the tournament,” Norton said. “We had about an hour break in between each game before we would play again. By the time we played Heard County, they had also played one game that day. So, we were going into playing games four and five with them. We had to beat them twice because they were coming out of the winner’s bracket.”
Greene County took a slim 12-10 victory in game one of the championship series after seizing a late lead, then fending off their opponent in the late going. In game two, it was a more lopsided affair with Greene County taking a 15-5 victory to secure the 8U state championship and cap off a very busy day.
“That first game against Heard was a close one, but that sent us into a true championship game,” the coach said. “It was incredible to be a part of and witness it. For seven- and eight-year-old girls having to play five games, basically, from 11 a.m. to after 8 p.m., they were physically and mentally exhausted, but they just kept playing hard. We kept finding ways to win – and won pretty big outside of that first game against Heard County.”
Greene County’s team consisted of 12 players: Bishop Caldwell, Madelyn Dyches, Nina Laroche, Kennedy Lott, Charlee Mize, Avery Norton, Jamie Norton, Timber Pilcher, Silas Smith, Lilah Tolbert, Hallie Wall and Tember Williams. The coaches included Norton, Dade Lott, Russell Wall and Joe Tolbert.
Greene County’s 8U softball squad played a total of eight games during the state championship run, putting together a 7-1 overall record while scoring 139 runs and giving up 79. The team averaged 17.4 runs per contest, higher than any other squad in the tournament, and allowed an average of 9.9 runs per game. Furthermore, Greene’s offense struck out only four times in total.
Avery Norton was Greene County’s top slugger with 26 hits. However, Jamie Norton, Timber Pilcher and Lilah Tolbert each had 23 hits, while Charlee Mize and Kennedy Lott had 20-plus hits apiece across the team’s eight playoff games.
“We averaged one strikeout for every two games, which is to say it’s only coach pitch and not a big deal, but still, most of the teams we played had four to six every game,” Norton explained. “We set out a goal last year to make a run at this thing. We had four girls coming back from last year’s playoff team, so that was one of the big things we learned. You can’t just strike out but have to put the ball in play. Our girls just mastered that and did well. They answered the call and hit it well.”
Norton was happy not only for his players but for the other coaches who were along for the title ride. He said it was a unique and exciting experience for everyone.
“Part of the cool thing was that we beat Putnam to advance to the final after they beat us, but also to win five games is nothing short of amazing,” Norton said. “There were a number of people there that said it was incredible for them to win five games in eight-and-a-half hours. I know the girls were tired, but so were all of us coaches. It was something, but they worked hard and it was great.”