With just over a month left in the regular season, area softball teams are gearing up for the stretch run in region play. Several will begin that quest already on top of their respective regions, with several more chasing for playoff spots.
The state playoffs begin October 10th across the state. The top four teams from each region advance to the playoffs with first round action at the home of the top seed (except for Class A, which uses power rankings to determine the playoff field).
Flowery Branch (Region 7-4A), East Hall (Region 7-3A), and Jefferson in Region 8-3A all sit atop their regions heading into this week’s action. Lumpkin County in 7-3A and Jackson County in 8-3A both are positioned in second place with White County (7-4A), North Hall (7-3A), Union County in Region 8-2A, and Commerce in Region 8-A all holding down third place in their respective regions.
In Region 7-4A, Flowery Branch (9-9, 7-1 Region 7-4A) leads both Blessed Trinity (10-4, 5-1) and Marist (11-2, 5-1) by a game and is two games ahead of third place White County (8-5, 5-3). The Lady Falcons have been playoff regulars the last four seasons but are in line for a region title. They split with Marist last week and return to region action next week against Denmark before closing out their regular season and region schedule against Blessed Trinity in three weeks.
White County split with Blessed Trinity and still has region contests against West Hall and Marist as the Lady Warriors still are alive for a top-two seed.
In Region 7-3A, East Hall (9-7, 7-0) leads second place Lumpkin County (12-3, 4-1) by two games at roughly the half-point of the schedule. The Lady Vikings already have beaten every region team at least once. North Hall (6-7, 3-2) is three games back for third just one-half game ahead of Fannin County (5-8, 3-3).
The Lady Vikings are averaging just over 8 runs a game and have yielded just 11 total runs in region play.
In Region 8-3A, Jefferson (14-3, 6-1) leads Jackson County (11-5, 6-2) by just one-half game but has used outstanding pitching and defense early on. The Lady Dragons have given up just 8 runs in region play. The next best team as far as runs allowed is the Lady Panthers, who have allowed 23 runs over the same span.
Jackson County is the defending region champion and was an Elite 8 team in 2017 and handed Jefferson its only region loss so far. The two teams will play again on Sept. 20 at Jefferson.
In Region 8-2A, 2017 state runner-up Monticello (11-3, 4-0) leads the region with Social Circle (6-4, 2-0) in second. Union County (10-4, 2-1) is third with Banks County (8-4, 2-2) in fourth. But the Lady Leopards finished third in Class 2A in 2017 and also know how to finish a season with momentum.
In Region 8-6A, Habersham Central (8-6, 3-4) is in fourth place, three games in back of first place Apalachee but is only one-half game behind Winder-Barrow (5-7, 3-3) for third place.
In Region 8-A, Commerce (10-5, 4-2) is third and Towns County (2-8, 2-4) is tied for fifth. However, Class A uses power rankings to determine the top 24 teams in each the Private and Public brackets. The first power rankings of the season will be released on Monday.
Region 8-5A, which houses Buford and Johnson, will begin region play on Tuesday.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/9/711172/softball-area-teams-gearing-up-for-stretch-run