Lady Cougars Complete Season As GISA Softball State Runner-Up

Piedmont Academy’s quest for a second state softball championship fell just short as the Lady Cougars were defeated by Briarwood Saturday in games played at Mercer University.

In a rematch from last season’s state finals, it was the Lady Buccaneers who earned the championship trophy for 2018. Briarwood won the first game 2-1 before closing out the series with a 7-1 victory in the second contest, also played Saturday.

For Piedmont, the 2018 season concludes with plenty of accomplishments including 20 wins, a region title and the knowledge it played its toughest schedule in program history.

“In the first game we played almost mistake-free,” Lady Cougars coach Colt Spivey said. “Maddie Morton pitched an unbelievable game. Briarwood’s lineup from the first batter to the ninth batter does not have an easy out and Maddie basically kept them in check.”

Spivey said Briarwood has four or five players who will be competing at the collegiate level.

“Maddie allowed one earned run against that lineup,” Spivey said. “However, we were never able to break through offensively. Briarwood’s pitcher is very strong.”

Morton went all seven innings and recorded five strikeouts while scattering six hits.

Cassidy Cook provided the offensive highlight in game one with a homer. Lucy Tuggle drew a walk. The game was tied 1-1 after four innings before Briarwood pushed across what turned out to be the winning run in the top of the sixth.

The breaks did not go Piedmont’s way in the second game. Needing a win to keep the series alive, the Lady Cougars fell 7-1. The Lady Buccaneers took a 2-0 lead after the first inning and scored three runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth.

Piedmont put its lone run on the board in the top of the seventh inning. Madison Johnson had an RBI for the Lady Cougars.

Neely Bradford pitched the first 4.2 innings before Morton went the remainder of the contest. Bradford recorded four strikeouts.

“Briarwood is just a very good team,” Spivey said. “It was probably the first time since I have been the softball head coach that we really needed to play perfect to be able to win. When you aren’t able to get hits and the other team doesn’t make any mistakes it is going to be very tough to be successful on the scoreboard.”

Piedmont, similar to Briarwood, played an extremely tough regular season schedule. Both schools competed against the top programs in the GISA as well as GHSA programs.

“The end result from Saturday was not what we wanted but we have a great deal to be proud of,” Spivey said. “We played against much stronger competition this season and got back to the finals. In time the players will understand better what they did accomplish.

The program will lose seven seniors to graduation including Morton, Bradford, Cook, Hailey Hooper, Mattie Johnston, Deacon Robinson and Tuggle.

Hooper, Morton, Cook and Bradford will each compete in the GISA All Star game Saturday at Georgia Southwestern University in Americus.