By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – It was business as usual.

The LaGrange Lady Grangers (7-1) made it six consecutive wins by blanking Cedartown 3-0 on Tuesday afternoon in their Region 5-AAAA opener.

LaGrange dropped its second game of the season to Troup, but it hasn’t lost since.

Over the weekend, the Lady Grangers went 4-0 in the Callaway Classic, and head coach Gabby Heath was glad to see them keep that momentum going.

“Coming out of the weekend and coming into today, our kids had a lot of confidence and belief in the fact that we are capable of being successful,” Heath said. “We have a really good mindset right now, and so it’s contagious when it’s everybody. It’s nice to watch them feed off of each other.”

Freshman pitcher Camden Smith was on the mound, and that has been bad news for LaGrange’s opponents.

Smith threw a one-hitter against Callaway in her varsity debut, and she has continued to mow down hitters since then.

In Tuesday’s game, Smith threw the seven-inning shutout while working around five hits and two walks.

Smith had four strikeouts.

In her four starts, Smith (4-1) has allowed one earned run.

Smith faced 29 batters, and she threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of them.

LaGrange took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the second, and it capped the scoring with a single run in the fifth inning.

Abby Vanhoose had two of LaGrange’s seven hits, and Malone Aldridge, Destiny Fitzpatrick, Jacee Marable, Smith and Madison Dennis each had one hit.

Marable, Dennis and Karcher each had an RBI.

In the second inning, Fitzpatrick led off with a double, and she later scored on a Marable fielder’s choice.

After a Smith single, Dennis’ base hit brought in another run and made it a 2-0 game.

In the fifth inning, Aldridge and Vanhoose reached on back-to-back singles, and Aldridge scored on a Karcher groundout.

LaGrange will host Heard County on Thursday and visit Bowdon on Monday before returning to region play with a game at Troup on Aug. 22.

Although the region schedule is only one game old, Heath believes her players have what it takes to compete for a title.

“That’s the conversation we had in the locker room today,” Heath said. “It is wide open. We have just as much of a chance as anybody else, and that’s our mindset right now.”