SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. — Social Circle’s playoff run started with a sweep on Wednesday as the Lady Redskins earned wins of 7-2 and 10-3 to take down Worth County at home.

The Lady Rams competed, but the efforts of Social Circle’s lineup and pitcher Emily Turner proved to be too much for the No. 28 seed from Sylvester in the opening round of the Class A-Division I playoffs.

Worth County played well enough to make it a game in both contests, but head coach Chris Davis was happy to see his team stick to the plan and play Social Circle’s brand of softball.

“Give credit to Worth County, they were a scrappy team,” Davis said, “Our girls, I am proud of them. They fought through things, played hard and eventually were able to take advantage of some mistakes that Worth made. That has probably been our game most of the year — do our best to put pressure on folks and then take advantage when they make a mistake.”

Lady Redskins pull away in later innings to capture game one

Game one proved to be a pitcher’s duel in the early innings between Turner and Worth County freshman Laurie Pritchard.

Social Circle managed to grab a run in the opening frame after a leadoff walk from Kyla Head led to a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice bunt from Anniston Jenkins.

After that, fans in attendance watched on as the both pitchers dealt scoreless frames until the Lady Redskins broke it open in the fourth and fifth innings.

Pritchard earned a strikeout to start the frame, but a walk from Aubri Digby led to an RBI double off the bat of Natalie Vandenberg.

Following a groundout from Baylee Williams to put two outs on the board, a RBI groundout made it a 3-0 lead for Social Circle.

Just as she did in the multiple innings prior, Turner evaded a Worth County rally as she pitched around a single to leave the frame scoreless.

In the bottom of the fifth, Social Circle found itself in a good spot after a walk, an error and a hit by pitch ensued.

With the bases loaded, a fly ball from Annika Lott resulted in an error from the Lady Rams outfield that allowed a run to score.

Digby scored another run in the next at-bat on a RBI groundout to close out the frame with a 5-0 lead for the Lady Redskins.

Against a talented but young pitcher, the goal for the Lady Redskins was to take what Pritchard gave them when it came to the at-bats.

“She[Pritchard] is very talented,” Davis said. “She is what we scouted and what we expected. Part of our thing was being a freshman, making her throw a lot. She can be very good but can sometimes have control issues so we wanted to make sure if she was not going to be in the zone that we did not help her out. At the same time, if she was in the zone then make her team make plays.”

Down by five, the Lady Rams began to find some success against Turner.

Turner hit the first batter with a pitch and gave up a single to center field to leadoff the inning.

Back-to-back RBI knocks followed as Worth County trimmed the lead to 2-5 with a pair of runners still on base and no outs.

With a Lady Rams’ rally in the works, Turner locked in and struck out the next two batters before a pop out to Lott closed out the inning.

A leadoff double from Williams in the next frame began a stretch of at-bats that helped Social Circle earn the two runs back on run-scoring hits from Head and Jenkins.

With the Lady Redskins up by five again at 7-2, Turner pitched a one-two-three inning that featured a pair of strikeouts to close out the game in the seventh.

In game one, Head and Jenkins led the way offensively as the two combined for three hits, three RBIs and three walks.

Turner went the full seven innings and struck out 14 Lady Rams batters as she allowed two earned runs and two walks.

Lady Redskins get ahead early and do not look back in game two

After she pitched the entirety of game one, Turner returned to the mound as the starter for game two as she helped Social Circle capture a 10-3 win for the sweep.

Game one saw Turner throw 150 pitches on the mound. Even though game two also went the full seven innings, Davis noted how the plan was to let Turner trust the defense behind her.

“[In] game two our plan went to more of, ‘Let’s pitch more to contact so we can maybe keep the pitch count down some,’” Davis said. “We did feel like we had the momentum and that we could potentially out-hit them. If they were not going to throw their best against us and even if they were, having that first win [meant] we were still going to have that advantage.”

Turner went on to throw only 94 pitches in game two, but her efforts went beyond the mound as well as she tallied a team-high four hits in the series-clinching win.

With the box-score flipped, the hosting Lady Redskins started the game at the plate and put runs on the board instantly.

Both Head and Lott reached to start the game, and that led to a RBI single from Turner and a RBI double from Digby that gave Social Circle a 2-0 advantage.

A costly error from pitcher Molly Williford allowed another run to score to make it a 3-0 lead to close the frame.

Following a quick inning on the mound from Turner, the Lady Redskins bats kept it going.

Jenkins singled to leadoff the inning, and back-to-back RBI doubles from Head and Lott extended the lead to 5-0.

Turner came to the plate and delivered again with an RBI knock, but a steal of home from Zoey Dotson put the final touches on the frame as Social Circle led 7-0.

Vandenberg came through with a RBI groundout to make it a 8-0 lead, but Worth County managed to put a pair of runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth.

After a pair of walks, Ansley Bartley drove in both runners on a two-run double to left field to trim the lead to 2-8.

A Social Circle error allowed a third Worth County run to score in the fifth, but that score proved to be the final run of the Lady Rams 2025 season.

Vandenberg came through one more time on a two-run double in the sixth as Social Circle’s lead went up to 10-3.

Turner pitched scoreless frames in both the sixth and seventh innings as the Lady Redskins cruised to a two-game sweep over the Lady Rams in the first round.

Turner finished her day at the plate with a 4-for-4 line with two RBIs and one walk. On the mound, the Austin-Peay commit went seven full innings and allowed only two earned runs with nine strikeouts.

Head, Lott and Digby all came away with multi-hit performances in the game two victory.

What’s next

After the sweep to begin the 2025 postseason, Social Circle will remain at home to host the Armuchee Lady Indians in the second round.

The Lady Indians are a No. 21 seed and took down No. 12 seeded Brantley County in a two-game sweep.