In the opening game, the Lady Raiders won 10-1 in five innings.
The second game was a lot tighter, but Madison County won 6-3 in seven innings to complete the sweep.
“We hadn’t found our way since (losing to Alexander in the region tournament),” LaGrange head coach Jan Jones said. “So we faced a good hitting team and we’ve got to score more runs than they do and we’ve got to be able to make a play.”
Jones was referring to the Alexander game on Oct. 2 when the Lady Grangers suffered a 10-2 loss.
LaGrange also lost to Carrollton 2-1 in the region tournament.
That loss knocked the Lady Grangers down to the number four seed, requiring them to face a region champion in the first round of state.
LaGrange came into the region tournament as the number one seed before going 1-2.
“At this point in time, it’s all about matchups,” Jones said. “We couldn’t do what we needed to do in the region tournament so unfortunately we had to come on the road and fight and play a one seed which is a real good one seed.”
Against Madison County, Jones said “we were right on both pitchers. We just made a couple of base-running mistakes.”
As tough as it was to go out in the first round, Jones said there’s a lot to look forward to with most of the players coming back, although seniors Savanna Wooten and Mary Margaret Rogers will be missed.
“We’ve got a young team so we feel like if they feel work throughout the winter and throughout the summer, we’ll be right back,” Jones said.
In the first game, Madison County came up with four runs in the second inning and six more in the third.
LaGrange’s only run came in the second inning with the bases loaded when Emily Anderson scored on a bases-loaded walk to Karskin Spinks.
Taylor Livingston moved from her second-base position to pitcher in the fourth inning and didn’t allow the Raiders any additional runs, but it was a moot point by then, and the game ended after five innings.
LaGrange had four hits in Game 1, and Spinks and Livingston each had a double.
In the second game, things were looking up for LaGrange as it jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
Makenzie Traylor led off the inning with a walk and then stole second base. Anderson hit a slow roller to third base that was fumbled, and she reached first safely, with Traylor moving to third.
Lauren Robinson followed with an RBI single, and after Spinks reached on an error, Wooten’s RBI single made it a 2-0 game.
Madison County fired back with four runs of its own in the fourth inning to take the lead for good.
Spinks led off the bottom of the fifth with a triple, with the ball just landing inside the foul line in right field, but she was stranded on third.
LaGrange had one final chance in the seventh inning and things didn’t start well as the first two batters were retired.
Spinks kept hope alive with a double as the ball rolled all the way to the outfield fence.
In her last at-bat as a Granger, Wooten hit a soft blooper that fell in for a hit, and Spinks came in to score, cutting the lead in half at 6-3.
Madison County got the final out on a strikeout, though, to end the game.”
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