COVINGTON, Ga. — Falling down 5-1 early, the Alcovy Lady Tigers roared back to overcome the Woodward Academy Lady War Eagles 11-5. With Wednesday’s victory, Alcovy sits alone atop the Region 3-AAAAAA standings.
Head coach Miranda Lamb categorized the win as the squad’s “best game they’ve played all season long.”
“I think our hitting was great. We had a few hiccups in the field but, they’re human, they’re going to do that,” Lamb said. “They settled in the box and I really appreciate that about them. They were aggressive on bases. Overall, it was a whole team effort to get that win today.”
Ashlyn Hoy’s bottom of the second, RBI double got it all started offensively for the Lady Tigers. Her connection scored Olivia Tomberlin and Makinzie Johnson from second and third base, respectively.
Two at-bats later, Kaitlyn Williams singled to center field to score Hoy. CeCe Williams tied the game up 5-5 with an RBI single, which brought Jamaya Anderson across home plate.
Kaitlyn Williams later scored herself on a fielder’s choice by Woodward Academy to give Alcovy its first lead of the contest — an advantage they would never relinquish.
The Lady Tigers’ lead doubled when CeCe Williams scored on a Lady War Eagle error.
At that point, Alcovy led 7-5. The Lady Tigers put together a four-run bottom of the sixth to pad their lead.
Jakyhia Lawrence had an RBI single to bring Kaitlyn Williams and Aubri Norman in to score. Makinzie Johnson had a sacrifice fly to score Lawrence from third.
Tomberlin provided Alcovy’s 11th run of the game that came on an RBI single, which Kaylie McDonald scored on.
In between the offensive bursts, CeCe Williams kept Woodward Academy’s offense at bay. Over the final five innings, CeCe only surrendered two hits, three walks and recorded two strikeouts.
That outing led the junior ace to getting the win pitching the full seven innings, allowing two earned runs and had six total strikeouts.
Wednesday’s meeting was a rematch from last year’s Region 3-AAAAAA championship game, which Alcovy won 8-7 in eight innings. The Lady Tigers finished 15-0 in region play in 2022 including a 3-0 record against Woodward Academy.
Alcovy (10-7, 7-0) is the first team in 2023 to get the better of the Lady War Eagles, too.
In fact, the Lady Tigers have now won 24 straight Region 3-AAAAAA contests with their last region loss dating back to Sept. 29, 2021.
Moving forward, Alcovy will face more region competition with a doubleheader against Lovejoy on Sept. 19 and Mundy’s Mill on Sept. 21.
Other non-region games are sprinkled in as well versus Social Circle, Grayson and Campbell before the Lady Tigers travel to Woodward
Academy on Sept. 26.
Lamb would like to see her team have one major takeaway from Wednesday’s outcome.
“We have to maintain the focus. I told them, ‘Anybody can go in at any time. You have to be prepared. You have to know what’s going on in the game.’ I think they took that to heart today,” Lamb said. “Everybody in the dugout was focused. Little pieces are starting to connect hopefully to make that big picture come October.”
