STATE CHAMPS: West Laurens wins three straight over Heritage, North Hall to claim state softball title

The West Laurens Raiders are state softball champions again.

They entered the final day of the GHSA state fastpitch tournament needing three consecutive wins in order to win it all, and knocked off both the defending state champion Heritage, 4-3 Saturday morning, then the North Hall team to which they lost Friday afternoon, 6-3 and 12-7, to complete their comeback to the top. 

The Raiders’ powerful hitting from the preceding game carried over into the finale, which included two more deep flies among a dozen total hits. 

Moss’ three-run blast put West Laurens on top for good in the second inning, after Madison Brown’s two-RBI single tied the game at 2. 

RBIs by Moss, Brown, Ella Thompson, Chandler Malone and Audrie Edenfield followed in a six-run third to make it 11-2, and send the game on a snowball’s course. 

Paisley Powell hit a solo home run in the sixth for a little insurance in the midst of a five-run push by North Hall from the fourth through sixth. 

Malone led the Raiders with three hits. Powell, Brown and Maggie Shea Lord finished with two each.

Moss once again took West Laurens the distance in the circle, allowing just four earned runs on 11 hits and a single walk. 

2 p.m. update… 

West Laurens and North Hall will play one more time in a winner-take-all for the AAAA state softball championship this afternoon. 

The Raiders defeated the Trojans 6-3 early Saturday afternoon to avenge a loss from the day before, and force an “if” game in the finals of the GHSA fastpitch tournament. 

North Hall had runners at the corners with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when a fly out to Chandler Malone in left field clinched the final out. 

Madison Brown homered in the first and seventh, and Demmie Moss right behind her in the top of the last make it 6-2, before the Trojans chipped one more run away on a passed ball. 

But Demmie Moss otherwise kept West’s lead out of reach as she limited Hall to three earned runs on eight hits, with three walks and two strikeouts.

Allie Sahli and Audrie Edenfield added two hits apiece to help the Raiders out-hit the Trojans 9-8, and lead wire to wire. 

Noon update…

The West Laurens softball team has played its way back into the state finals for the first time since its championship run in 2022, after defeating Heritage of Ringgold 4-3 to avoid elimination Saturday morning in Columbus. 

The Raiders hung onto the last run in an earlier lead of three as Heritage scored once, then loaded the bases in the top of the seventh. But second baseman Maggie Shea Lord secured back-to-back infield pop-ups for the final two outs to throw a lid on the victory. 

It’ll be a rematch with North Hall in Saturday’s championship set, which West would have to sweep in order to win it all. The Trojans, winners of the Friday afternoon matchup by a 13-5 final, could clinch the title with a victory in either of two potential games. 

The long ball has been big for the Raiders all season, and was key in helping them cash in an early opportunity with two on base to strike for three on one swing by Madison Brown in the bottom of the first inning. 

They’d have to get by on just five other hits for the game, one other coming in that first inning on a single by Chandler Malone. Lord, Audrie Edenfield, Peyton Crabb and Allie Sahli had the only others. 

Heritage, led by the two each of Molly Corvin, Kinley Eason and Paisley Collins, totaled nine. 

West Laurens turned double plays to end both the first and second innings, but the Generalsscratched out a run to cut into its 3-0 lead as Molly O’Brien drove one home on a single. 

The Raiders undid that damage in the fourth, when Lord reached on an error, stole two bases and scored on a Sahli ground ball. 

There were Heritage baserunners in every inning, but none others could make it in until the sixth, when an error opened the door to a run to narrow the gap to 4-2. 

Similar to the following inning, back-to-back fly balls toward Brown in right stranded a runner at third and cut short the potential rally. 

A walk and single set the table for the Generals’ third run on a single by Collins early in the seventh. 

Crabb and Demmie Moss once again tag-teamed in the circle. The former pitched most of the way around seven Heritage hits in the first two and a third. Moss limited Heritage to two runs on two hits, with four walks and two strikeouts, the rest of the way. 

Friday, West Laurens put together a late comeback to draw within four twice on a pair of Lord home runs, as well as RBIs by Malone and Powell that came in the fifth and sixth innings. 

But North Hall, which also out-hit the Raiders 13-8, kept scoring to keep its early lead out of reach.