Pitching, power propel West Laurens to win over Cherokee Bluff, closer to state finals

After mounting comebacks from way behind to win three in a row at the wire, West Laurens gave its fans seven innings to breathe easy over a mostly suspense-free second game of the GHSA fastpitch tournament Thursday in Columbus. 

The Raiders got an early lead and ran with it as they cruised to a 10-4 victory over No. 3 seed Cherokee Bluff to stay on a perfect postseason streak, and move within one more win of the state finals. 

They may have been provided a brief respite from the edge-of-your-seat drama typical of this frantic four-day chase for the state crown, but the Blue and White faithful should keep their seatbelts fastened through the remainder of the weekend, which promises a quick return of the wild excitement they got an early taste of Wednesday night when West Laurens (25-10 overall) re-takes the field Friday afternoon. 

Either the Raiders or No. 20 North Hall (whose dark-horse run to this point has included upsets of higher seeds Bainbridge, Monroe Area, Heritage and Long County) will enter Saturday in the driver’s seat of the tournament, the winner having to lose twice in order to be denied the top prize. 

But both are guaranteed to be among the last three left standing on the final day of competition, when the loser will have to fight off one remaining challenger in order to earn a rematch. 

Demmie Moss and Ella Thompson homered for two out of 13 hits for a West Laurens lineup that continued to produce, with one or more hits in eight out of the order’s nine spots (and a walk that led to a run in the only one without). Pitchers Moss and Peyton Crabb combined to limit the Bears to only five going the other way. 

The game was never really in question after a trade of single runs in the first inning, via sacrifice flies off the bats of the Raiders’ Madison Brown and Bluff’s Jaycee Archer. 

West Laurens, from there, put up seven unanswered to lead 8-1 after four. 

The Bears’ only answer got the Raiders breathing a little bit in the fifth, as the singles of Addy Cagle, Ashlyn Archer and Lillie Diehl (following a one-out error that cracked the door) generated three runs to reduce their lead from seven to just four. 

But Thompson’s solo shot on pitch No. 3 of the sixth, and RBI to drive home Maggie Shea Lord in the seventh, assuaged any concerns of a Cherokee Bluff comeback. 

The insurance wouldn’t ultimately be necessary thanks to the shutdown work of Moss in the circle.

The sophomore reliever, with some help from her catcher Kinsley Moore who gunned out sixth-inning runners on a dropped third strike and stolen base attempt, faced only five batters to get all six remaining outs. 

Crabb gave up only one additional hit and a single earned run in the first four frames of her start. Both Raider pitchers struck out two. 

West Laurens took its second and final lead on a passed ball early in inning 2, before capitalizing further on the opportunity as Thompson and Chandler Malone came up with ground-ball RBIs to make it 4-1.

Moss cracked it open with her second two-run home run in as many games to follow up a Brown single in the third.

Another Brown base hit in the fourth scored two more. 

Thompson and Brown finished with two hits and three RBIs. Paisley Powell, Lord and Allie Sahli (who made a second-straight leaning catch in center field to deny a home run) had one each. 

Cherokee Bluff starter Bailey Greason walked and struck out three. West Laurens got its final seven hits off of Jaycee Archer, who worked the last four in relief.