There is a reason that the Lady Vikings out of East Hall High School are undefeated in regional play. In fact, there are many reasons, and all of them were on display against the Dawson County Lady Tigers during the first round of the 7-AAA tournament on Wednesday, Oct. 3.
The first reason is the pitching of Macy Banks. Boasting a record of 14-2 and a 1.65 ERA for the season, Banks took to the circle for the Vikings and turned in a brilliant performance on the day. Retiring 15 batters in a row, Banks pitched a perfect game through five innings (when the game was called) with the only miscue being a second inning walk to Tigers first baseman Bella Henson.
The second reason is their offense across the board. East Hall took the early lead with two runs in the first inning and never looked back. A four-run third inning took the wind out of the sails of the Lady Tigers, and two more runs in the bottom of the fifth invoked the run rule to finalize the game at a score of 8–0.
“They can hit,” said Assistant Coach Logan Allen. “We put no pressure on them from the beginning.”
The day’s second game featured the North Hall Trojans as they came away from the first round on the low end of a 4-1 score versus the Lumpkin County Indians.
Dawson County opened the game with a run in the first inning as Carol Drake took advantage of a series of errors by the Trojans to round the bases and give the Tigers the early lead.
Normally, pitching with the lead allows Tigers pitcher Maggie Schandera to dominate her opponents from the circle, but that day proved different as the Trojans capitalized on a similar series of errors from the Tigers to tie the game, and then launched the ball into the woods on back-to-back home runs to open a 5–1 lead in their first at-bat.
The onslaught continued as North Hall scored at least two runs in every inning, capping the game with a five-run display in the bottom of the fourth, invoking the run rule against the Tigers for the second time on the day.
Having finished the day with two losses the Lady Tigers will enter the State Tournament as the 7-AAA No. 4 seed, which pits them against the 6-AAA No. 1 seed Calhoun Yellow Jackets on Oct. 10.