COVINGTON, Ga. — The Eastside Lady Eagles jumped ahead early and never let up as they took down Madison County 8-0 at home on Tuesday.
The win for the Lady Eagles marked their third region win of the season and the second time they have shutout a region opponent.
Pitchers Eva Davis and Jayah Johnson handled the pitching duties and shut down the Lady Red Raiders through five innings as the two combined to allow only three hits and strike out seven batters.
Davis was the one to get the start for head coach Heather Wood, and Madison County jumped on the fifth pitch of the game for a leadoff single.
However, Davis sent down the next three batters in order to strand the runner and put the Lady Eagles in the box.
When it came time for the Lady Eagles to take their first at bats of the game, the team picked up right where it left off from their strong game against Flowery Branch.
Following leadoff singles from Donee Morain and Lily Stowe, Madison County’s Joslyn Compton earned the next two outs before Eastside mounted a strong rally.
A ground ball from Savanna Griffin to shortstop Brooke Porterfield resulted in a costly error that allowed Morain to score from second base.
After that, Kylee Lawrence sent a hard-hit ball deep into centerfield for a two-run triple.
Before the inning came to a close, a groundball from Johnson to Compton resulted in another run-scoring error to put Eastside ahead 4-0 at the end of one frame.
Davis pitched her way around another single in the second and pitched a one-two-three inning in the third frame to set up Eastside for another set of runs.
After Lawrence had one in the opening frame, Allie Vaughn came down with a three-bagger to leadoff the bottom of the third.
Following an out from Davis, a pop up from Griffin was too tricky for Madison County’s left fielder as the ball dropped and Vaughn scored from third base.
A second error in the following at-bat allowed Lawrence to reach second base with Griffin still on third. From there, Johnson scored Eastside’s sixth run on a sacrifice fly to make it a 6-0 lead.
Johnson took over for Davis and the fourth and came out firing.
Back-to-back strikeouts were halted by a double from Ava Claire Hambrick, but Johnson still went on to strikeout the next batter to strand the runner.
A leadoff double from Morain in the bottom of the fourth eventually led to another run on a sacrifice fly from Vaughn.
Johnson went on to strike out two more Madison County batters in the fifth before the Lady Eagles closed out the game in the ensuing frame.
After a leadoff single from Griffin, Lawrence hit a line drive down the left field line for her second RBI triple of the game. This time, it scored Griffin to end the game via run-rule with a 8-0 victory.
Morain and Lawrence each came away with multi-hit games for Eastside, but it was the three RBIs for Lawrence that led the way.
Davis and Johnson proved to be lights out on the mound as they held Madison County in check from start to finish.
The win is the fifth of the season for Eastside as they move to 5-0 with a 3-0 record in Region 8-AAAA.
Next up for the Lady Eagle is another region matchup on the road at Walnut Grove on Thursday, Aug. 28.
