Crabb walks off, West Laurens beats Ridgeland to win extra-inning debut in Columbus

Mike Thompson went into full windmill mode from the second the ball, off the bat of Peyton Crabb, dropped into the right center field gap. 

The West Laurens head coach rotated his left arm clockwise furiously, at a rate to rival an airplane propeller, to direct his runner Audrie Edenfield, breaking off of contact from first base, in the direction of home before she had even reached second. 

“I felt like if I waved my arm faster, she’d run faster,” he said. 

The freshman got the message, and summoned every last bit of juice she had to make it there on a feet-first slide, just a beat in front of the Ridgeland relay throw. 

It was right on the money, but a tad late, as Edenfield scored the winning run of the Raiders’ third consecutive come-from-behind victory in this year’s playoffs. 

They defeated the Panthers 5-4 in two extras Wednesday night to keep a postseason unbeaten streak going strong, and advance at the GHSA state fastpitch softball tournament in Columbus. 

Thompson’s shoulder may have been worse for the wear of nine innings than any of his players’ limbs or joints. But West Laurens will ice ’em up for its next game, which comes on a quick turnaround Thursday afternoon. 

“The arm feels good,” he said with a chuckle. “It was definitely exciting. (More exciting than I would) have hoped, but we’ll take the win.” 

This is the third year in a row that the Raiders (24-7, 6-2 region 3-AAAA) have won their opener at the state tournament. But round 2 of the winner’s bracket is where their teams with the stuff to go the distance have truly turned the corner. 

Since the first of their seven appearances in a row back in 2020, the only team to get the second one, and reach the semifinal also went on to win it all back in 2022. 

The past two seasons, they’ve run into three-time defending state champion Heritage – which this year began in the top of the bracket and lost its opener 8-5 to North Hall. 

West Laurens, positioned in the bottom section, will have No. 3 overall seed Cherokee Bluff in its next game Thursday afternoon. 

The late-game magic that was in effect for all three early games of that year’s run, including the opener that ended with Alyssa Jones’ walk-off homer to beat Heritage, seemed to be back for the Raiders Wednesday night as Crabb, one of their multiple hitters who’ve displayed a similar clutch factor at the plate this season, stepped up with two outs. 

Edenfield was on first, after reaching base on a dribbling single through the middle before pop flies turned to outs 1 and 2 of the inning. 

“She’s a really good right center gap hitter,” Thompson said of Crabb. “When people try to go away from her, it kind of feeds into her strength a little bit. I felt like they were trying to stay away from her a lot, and I felt like if she got a pitch over the plate, she could hit it hard somewhere. She’s been swinging it hard the last couple of weeks.” 

The junior, fresh off the three-RBI single that put West Laurens ahead in the fifth inning of its clinching win over Adairsville at home in the second round, delivered another perfect swing for the moment to go the opposite way, splitting defenders and sending the ball all the way to the fence to give Edenfield a shot to score. 

And Thompson, who’s had a hot hand lately when it comes to decisions on sending runners, was pretty dead set giving her the wave no matter what. 

“I had done made up my mind before that if we got one in the gap right there, we were going to try to end it and make them throw us out,” he said. 

Come on back, now… 

For a second-straight game, a multi-part pitching effort was key in turning the tide for the Raiders, who started in a hole and trailed all the way until scoring a tying run in the last frame of regulation. 

Crabb once again got things started, with two walks and strikeouts as Ridgeland struck for eight hits over the first five innings and change. Demmie Moss, who’s been a closer of sorts, took over after Maddi Champagne’s leadoff single in the sixth, and held the Panthers to only one hit the rest of the way. 

The sophomore struck out nine – including the side in the eighth – and walked only two (one intentional to set up a two-out force play in the seventh). 

“Peyton didn’t throw bad, we just felt like at that time, we needed to change it up a little bit,” Thompson said. “They had seen her twice through the lineup, and we felt like we needed to give them a different look.” 

The switch-up succeeded in changing the pace of at-bats for Ridgeland hitters, who couldn’t adjust to Moss’ strong fastball. 

“Demmie was on last night,” Thompson said. “They struggled with her velocity a little bit. Coming in and getting the strikeouts there, I think they hit over 40 home runs as a team. We knew they were going to swing the bat, and we knew we were going to have to score with them.” 

The Panthers scored a run each in all of the first five innings except the third, striking first on an RBI single by Alaina Shaver then adding to their lead with solo homers by Kacey Hart (in the second and fourth) and Ari Sanderfur (to make it 4-1 Ridgeland in the top of the fifth). 

One other potential blast in the fourth was robbed at the fence by West Laurens center fielder Allie Sahli.

The Raiders’ first counter came in the bottom of the third on a leadoff solo shot by Maggie Shea Lord. 

Two errors and a walk loaded the bases behind her for a chance to tie or take the lead, but two flies and a groundout ended the inning before West could get anyone else across the plate in a 2-1 game. 

Moss clubbed a two-run bomb to left, capitalizing after Madison Brown’s two-out single extended the fifth inning, to make it a one-run game. 

The pair of home runs, Nos. 30 and 31 of the season, tied and broke the program’s existing season record from 2011 in a trend of power that continues to be one of this season’s most pleasant surprises. 

“We didn’t really expect to hit home runs like we’ve hit them,” Thompson said. “We felt like we could be a decent hitting team, but we felt like we were going to be more of a small ball, hit it on the ground and run kind of team. They’ve really swung the bats well, and surprisingly hit for power.” 

Those homers have come as much from typical long-ball threats in the heart of the order as from those like Lord, for whom the third-inning blast was a third of the season. For this group, unlike many teams of late, the clutch hits have been just as spread out among members of the lineup.

“What’s really good about this team is it’s not the same kids,” Thompson said. “It’s somebody different all the time. There’s never anybody in our lineup that we’ve got to get it back to. Any of our nine at any point through the season have come up for us and gotten on base and scored runs and come up with big hits. It’s really a very balanced attack.” 

Paisley Powell singled and Edenfield doubled to put the tying and winning runs in scoring position out of the gate in the bottom of the seventh. 

Ridgeland’s Chesney Pritchett got a strikeout before issuing an intentional walk to Moss that loaded the bases. She’d lose Crabb on ball four to tie the game, but got the next two outs on a grounder to short that the Panthers got to the plate in time to get Edenfield on a force play. 

They tracked down a pop fly that was looking for the gap in right center to send the game to extras. 

The teams finished with nine hits apiece. Edenfield, Powell and Moss had two each for the Raiders. Pritchett walked eight and struck out two. 

Bluff defeated West’s region rival Harlem 10-1 to advance from its opener Wednesday night. The Bears (25-8, 11-1 region 8-AAAA) were state runner-up to Heritage last year after defeating the Raiders 3-2 in the elimination game that played into the finals. 

If that razor-tight matchup is any indication, Thursday’s rematch should be “probably a lot like last night.” 

“I think they’re going to be able to score runs. We’ve gotta hit with them,” Thompson said, before adding, “It’s Columbus. You never know.” 

“It should be a good game,” he added. “We’re hoping that we can, first off, win the toss and be the home team. We seem to thrive off of that a little bit, winning late games in the last inning. But I feel like we can score.” 

Thursday’s victor will play Friday against the winner between North Hall and top seed Long County (another of 3-AAAA’s trio of representatives in the tournament), which held off Pickens to win 4-3.