Callaway rolls past Jordan
Published 10:53 pm Tuesday, September 24, 2019
By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY
Daily News
The Callaway High softball team finished a successful regular season with a 14-2 home win over Jordan on Tuesday.
Callaway closed the regular season with a 13-12 record, giving it a winning record heading into next week’s Region 5-AA tournament.
Callaway is the number four seed, and it will face top-seeded Heard County in a first-round game in Franklin.
It’ll be a rematch of a first-round game from a year ago, with Heard County rallying from a big deficit to beat Callaway 10-7.
Heard County won both regular-season meetings with Callaway this year, including a wild 17-11 victory two weeks ago.
No matter what happens in the region tournament, Callaway has already qualified for the state playoffs.
If Callaway finishes first or second in the region tournament, it will host a state-playoff series.
A win over a talented Heard County team would make that a reality for Callaway.
Second-seeded Bremen will face third-seeded Lamar County in the other first-round game.
“If they zone it, they can do it,” Callaway head coach Robyn McCann said. “That’s what we’re telling them. We had the lead on Heard last year (in the region tournament).”
Callaway faced little opposition from Jordan in Tuesday’s game.
Callaway jumped on top with three runs in the first inning, and it never looked back in a game that ended in the fourth inning because of the run rule.
Callaway finished the regular season with back-to-back wins over Shaw and Jordan, and it has won three of its past four games.
“We have our days, but overall, there’s been progress since the beginning,” McCann said.
Leijorey Sanders, one of three seniors in the every-day lineup, nearly hit for the cycle.
Sanders had a triple, a double, and a single, and she had one RBI.
Kourtney Grier, another senior, had a single and a double and an RBI, and Alora Vetsavong and Mya Lawton each had a triple and an RBI.
Chaple Butler had a base hit and two RBIs, and she also walked and scored three runs.
Lindsay Cofield had two hits and three runs scored, McKenzie Rhodes had two RBIs, Faith Horton had an RBI, and Emma Bryan had a single.
Horton started and pitched two scoreless innings to get the win, and senior Alexus Furgerson and freshman Chelsea Courson each pitched one inning.
Courson threw a perfect top of the fourth to finish it.