By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

LAGRANGE – It’s been mostly smooth sailing for the LaGrange Lady Grangers this season, but they had a rare bad day against Chapel Hill last month.

LaGrange came into the game with a 3-0 Region 5-AAAA record, but it was overwhelmed by Chapel Hill 17-1 on Aug. 29.

Fortunately for the Lady Grangers, that setback was not a sign of things to come.

LaGrange has won four consecutive games to surge into first place in the region, and it will look to keep the good times rolling when it visits Sandy Creek today.

LaGrange finishes its region schedule with critical games against Chapel Hill and Central-Carroll as it looks to sew up the top seed for the region tournament.

Finishing first or second is a big deal because of how the region tournament is set up.

The top two teams will play a best-of-three series to determine the region champion, and both teams will be at home for the first round of the state tournament.

The next four teams will get together to determine the region’s third and fourth seeds.

LaGrange still has a lot of work to do to sew up one of those top two spots.

Of LaGrange’s final three region games, two of them are against teams it has lost to.

LaGrange is 7-2 in the region, with the losses coming to Chapel Hill and Central-Carroll.

After the 17-1 loss to Chapel Hill, LaGrange fell to Central-Carroll 2-1.

While LaGrange lost the game to Central-Carroll, which won a state championship last season and has another strong team this year, it was an encouraging effort on the heels of the blowout loss to Chapel Hill.

“We talked about coming in and having the mindset of, there’s nobody better,” LaGrange coach Gabby Heath said following that game. “Because everybody in the region is so equal. It’s really a toss-up. It’s whoever shows up that day and makes the least amount of mistakes.”

Since that Central-Carroll loss, LaGrange has been as good as anyone in the region.

After a come-from-behind 8-4 win over Cedartown, LaGrange beat Troup 9-2 before sweeping a doubleheader at Cartersville by scores of 3-1 and 6-5.

The games against Chapel Hill and Central-Carroll will tell the story for LaGrange.

If the Lady Grangers win both of those games, they will finish first in the region.

If the Lady Grangers split those two games, they would still have a chance to finish first or second, and if they lose both of them they’d likely finish third.

Troup, meanwhile, is going in a different direction.

With Monday’s loss to Chapel Hill, Troup is 4-6 in the region, and it is in fifth place.

Troup finishes its region schedule this week.

Troup visits Cedartown today before hosting Central-Carroll on Thursday.

REGION STANDINGS

LaGrange      7-2

Central           5-2

Chapel Hill    5-2

Cartersville    5-6

Troup               4-6

Cedartown     2-5

Sandy Creek  1-6