PLAYOFF NOTEBOOK: East Laurens softball eliminated by Berrien, West Laurens volleyball falls at NW Whitfield

Postseason road trips ended with elimination for two local teams in the past week, East Laurens softball after a two-plus hour journey south to Nashville and West Laurens Volleyball an even longer three and a half hour drive north to Tunnel Hill. 

The Falcons were swept in their second-round series against No. 6 seed Berrien. The Raiders rallied to claim a set out of the four in their first-rounder at 12th seed Northwest Whitfield, but couldn’t catch up with the Bruins in any of the three others. 

For East, scoring was limited to single runs in the opening innings of both games in its Monday doubleheader. 

The Rebelettes, with a matching run in their half of each frame, scored the final eight in the remaining four to take the opener 9-1, and nine over the same span to run away with game 2, 10-1, and clinch their spot in Columbus. 

The Falcons (21-11, 10-2 region 2-AA) had their opportunities to get some additional runs across the plate, but couldn’t make enough sharp contact against Berrien’s ace pitcher Layla Rashford, who worked the first seven out of 10 innings in the series, and allowed only five total hits. 

They got to her for an early run to open the series as DeAndrea Lowther led off with a single, moved up on a sacrifice bunt laid down by Amiya O’Neal and scored on a base hit up the middle by Avery Smith, whose bat has been the clutchest in the East Laurens lineup since the start of October. 

A chance to get more with the bases loaded, after back-to-back batters were hit by pitches, escaped the Falcons as a runner got cut down at the plate, and the first inning ended on a groundout with no further scoring. 

The Rebelettes got the run right back, cashing in a walk with Zoe Hutto’s RBI single to tie it at 1. The rest of their eight unanswered runs would come a few at a time starting in the second with the go-ahead RBI single of Caydance Harmon, who led the team with three hits. Chason Warren’s two also yielded three RBIs. 

East Laurens went in order from there until the fifth, when Maddie Rogers drew a leadoff walk, a dropped fly ball in center put two on and Lowther singled again (it was the Falcons’ last of only three hits) to create another bases-loaded situation with nobody out. 

But a pickoff, and two ground balls, got them three outs in a snap to end the inning. And the bottom half of the inning would bring their game-clinching ninth run, as Harmon singled and scored on an error. 

Rashford struck out two and walked one in her five innings, while Lowther allowed eight hits, walked three and struck out seven for the Falcons in four innings and a third. 

Game 2 started with another trade of runs in the first, both on two-out doubles by Berrien’s Hutto and East’s Reagan Sasser. 

But a big second inning by the Rebelettes broke it open much wider, much sooner. They scored eight on five hits, two walks and two errors in the top of the second to go up 9-1. 

Berrien’s only other run went on the board in the top of the fifth. 

Rashford set East Laurens down 1-2-3 in the second, although the Falcons created some opportunities to chip away that didn’t come to fruition in their three other turns at-bat. 

They got two on against new pitcher Cacie Hale in the third, and another runner reached in the fourth before being erased on a double play. In the fifth, two last-chance singles by O’Neal and McKinley Canady, along with a walk drawn by Smith, once again loaded the bases with two outs. But a fielder’s choice ended the game. 

Canady led East Laurens with two of its four hits, two each against the pair of pitchers, who struck out one each.

Berrien, led by the two hits each of Hutto and Nikki Cribb, came up with eight against Lowther, who walked two and struck out four over the five innings. The Falcons also committed three errors. 

A valiant effort… 

West Laurens didn’t go down without a fight, but a late rally last Friday didn’t create enough momentum for the Raiders to reverse the direction of their first-round match at Northwest Whitfield. 

The Bruins, after outrunning them in the first two, took a fourth set handily to clinch the win – and advance to visit Columbus in round 2 – by a count of 3-1. 

Northwest started the evening the way it finished, in firm control. 

The Bruins won 14 of the opening set’s first 16 points, and rolled from there to win 25-11. 

West Laurens got some confidence going in the second, staging a four-point run early to prevent a Northwest runaway, and hanging about that many back until the home squad once again pulled away

The Raiders, trailing 20-15, made their best run on a string of four-straight points between timeouts to get within one of the tie. But a block at the net by Mary Susan Broadrick ended the Bruins’ slide, and they’d win the next five in a row to prevail 25-19, and go up 2-0 for the match. 

West fell behind by seven early in the do-or-die third set, but once again found some life on a five-point rally that began with a spike by Kayleigh Mack. 

Northwest Whitfield hit one into the net, Rylee Sherwood hammered one home and Skylar Fountain set for Mack on the go-ahead winner to give the Raiders their first lead of the day, 16-15. 

It changed hands several times from there, but West finished off the set win with three straight points on the service of Fountain, the last an ace, to break the last tie and win 25-22. 

There were no further openings in a fourth set that Northwest Whitfield quickly put away after running out to a 20-3 lead.

The Raiders (19-24, 6-3 region 3-AAAA) made their final stand on a 6-1 run late, but the Bruins took five out of the last six points to take the winning set 25-10.