SUWANEE, Ga. — The Newton Lady Rams were unable to overcome a persistent North Gwinnett offense on Tuesday as the team fell in the opening round of the Class AAAAAA playoffs.

Newton finished as the No. 4 ranked team from Region 4-AAAAAA, which pitted the Lady Rams against a 26-win Lady Bulldogs team that won Region 7-AAAAAA.

The Lady Rams went on to suffer a sweep with losses of 0-17 and 0-9, but Newton still managed to come away with a few positives.

For head coach Erica Johnson, it is the growth she has seen from a program that has made the playoffs in both of her two seasons as the team’s coach.

“From the first day of me seeing them, they were a little skeptical," Johnson said. “They were like, ‘Is she going to be what we need?’ Once they started to believe that they can do and that they will do. We are still working on the discipline part. With different coaches and different coaching styles, they have to learn and they are still learning my coaching style. We had new coaches this year so they are learning the new coaches as well. With us trying to instill discipline in them, they are starting to believe in us and they see that they can get there.”

Lady Bulldogs jump ahead early in game one

North Gwinnett came out of the gate fast on Tuesday as the team mounted a 17-0 lead after two innings in the box.

Pitcher London Treadwell took the mound for Newton, and only three of North Gwinnett’s runs were earned.

Treadwell allowed only nine hits, but it was 11 Newton errors that helped the Lady Bulldogs mount a sizable lead.

Victoria Na started the game for North Gwinnett and pitched through three innings that saw her strike out seven of the nine batters she faced.

Na led off the bottom of the inning for North Gwinnett and flew out to Raegen McKnight, but the Lady Bulldogs’ bats took off from there.

Singles from Emily Belyea and Madison Kokoszka set up a big home run from Addie Pierce that made it a 3-0 lead.

A pair of errors made it a 5-0 advantage for the Lady Bulldogs to end the frame, but most of the damage came after in the second inning.

Two errors and a single stretched the lead to 8-0, but a no-doubt home run off the bat of S White took the lead up to 11-0.

A stretch of run-scoring errors and RBI singles added on to North Gwinnett’s lead with a RBI knock from Caroline Caputo serving as the final mark to make it a 17-0 advantage for the hosts.

With Na still on the mound, Newton struck out three times in the top of the third to end the game via run rule.

Scott pitches well in game two, but Newton still falls

Newton’s game two starter was Kassidy Scott, who held her own against a tough lineup that left the first matchup with momentum.

However, Scott was matched by Kokoszka, who pitched another no-hitter for North Gwinnett with 10 strikeouts.

Na led off again for the Lady Bulldogs and put them on the board instantly as an error in left field allowed her to get all the way around for an inside the park home run.

Down 0-1, Scott pitched three consecutive outs to get out of the frame.

Scott pitched a scoreless second inning before North Gwinnett managed to get one more run on a passed ball in the third.

Following a walk from White in the bottom of the fourth, Ansley Phillips took a pitch to dead center for a two-run home run that made it a 4-0 lead for North Gwinnett.

Before Newton could get the remaining out to escape the frame, two more runs were scored on a pair of errors from the Lady Rams fielders.

Even with a deficit, Scott settled in and pitched back-to-back scoreless frames. 

Newton entered this season with a young pitching staff, but the efforts of both Treadwell and Scott on Tuesday were testament to the team’s fight, according to Johnson.

“My pitchers work hard,” Johnson said. “They work hard all year. We had a little struggle backing them up, so we need to work on that part. We need to be able to back our pitchers up when they are doing the best they can. But they are great, they are up and coming underclassmen who will really impact the Newton softball team when they get into their later years.”

With the Newton bats at bay, North Gwinnett added a pair of runs with an error and a RBI groundout in the top of the seventh to put the final touches on its game two win.

Kokoszka pitched a one-two-three seventh inning to secure the sweep for the Lady Bulldogs to begin the postseason.

Scott went the full seven innings for Newton and only allowed two earned runs to go with five strikeouts.

Season reflection

With the losses, Newton ends its 2025 campaign with a 14-15 record that saw the team finish 14-13 in the regular season. 

The region record for the Lady Rams stayed the same, but the overall win total increased from nine wins in 2024 to 14 this season.

Tuesday’s games also marked the final innings for 10 Newton seniors that have helped shape the program over the last few years.

Johnson spoke to the work the group put in to be leaders for the Lady Rams in 2025.

“Last year I was still trying to get to know them. This year I put a lot of pressure on them to lead the team,” Johnson said. “A lot of the seniors I have are real quiet leaders, so I have to bring out that fight in them. Once I started getting on them and putting that pressure on them, they started to come around so some of the things we needed them to do for the program.”