The 2012-13 school year not only brings a new season for Alcovy softball, but also a new region.

Thanks to Georgia High School Association redistricting, Alcovy moved from Region 3-AAAA to 2-AAAAAA, joining Rockdale, Druid Hills and Newton in its subregion.

The change in regions also brings new hope for the Lady Tigers, who are looking to bring a region title back to Alcovy.

"Our girls are pretty battle tested after playing in the region last year," Alcovy coach Monica Marks said. "Our goal this year is to win this region, that's one of our goals this season to win our region and to make it to Columbus."

The Tigers left behind such strong softball programs as Whitewater, Ola, Union Grove, Jones County and Northgate, but took with them the experience of facing tough competition game in and game out.

That experience will come into play again when they face Pike County and Whitewater in the Georgia Dugout Club Tournament today.

Whitewater finished second in the state last year, and defeated Alcovy 2-1 in a best-of-three series in the region tournament a year ago.

"We want to go out and play some good teams and compete to show that we're a good team," Marks said. It starts in the circle for Alcovy, which brings two front-line starters to each game in senior Chelsea Murphy and freshman Kalia Johnson. They're both really good, strong pitchers," Marks said.

Murphy started the Tigers first game in the South Gwinnett Tournament this weekend, leading to a 16-1 win over Shiloh. Johnson then threw a 9-3 victory against South Forsyth, before handing the ball back to Murphy, who got an 8-0 win over Eagles Landing Christian Academy on Saturday. Johnson finished off the tournament with a 7-5 win over Brookwood on Saturday.

Playing behind Murphy and Johnson is a veteran group, featuring 2011 All-Region shortstop Kia Sorrells.

"Offensively, we hit well and defensively we played well," Marks said. "Right now, we just have a good all-around team.

We have good pitching, our offensive is looking good and our defense is looking good too.

"The girls have a great attitude, they play well together."

Alcovy will return home on Thursday to face Jones County at 5:55 p.m.

"I just want the girls to continue to stay together as a team," Marks said. "That's the big thing if we can stay together as a team, we should do some good things this year."