In addition to boosting themselves to another region win Thursday, Forsyth Central’s softball club also boosted an important cause, topping Miller Grove 13-1 during the final leg of an ongoing drive to raise money for cancer patients.
The result lifted Central to a 6-0 record in Region 6-AAAA play ahead of this week’s region action, and came a day after a true oddity: a 30-0 win at Stone Mountain that stood at 28-0 after one inning.
“Against teams in the region, we’ve really got to take care of business,” coach Bill Richardson said after Thursday’s game, noting that he expected tougher matches in the Lady Dawgs’ last three region games against Tucker, Southwest DeKalb and Marist.
“I like a lot of runs early, because it takes some pressure off ... I just hope it doesn’t hurt us later on when we get in a game where it’s 1-1 in the fifth or sixth or seventh,” he said.
Off the field, assistant coach Corinne Milien said the Lady Dawgs had raised over $2,100 to be donated to Northside Hospital’s Cancer Care Center from raffle tickets and in-school donations.
With the gate admissions from the game factored in, she said the total amount would come out to over $2,400.
Brittney Head held the visiting Wolverines to two hits and struck out twelve batters before the game was called on runs in the fourth inning.
“She’s throwing it well. It makes defense easy when she strikes people out,” Richardson said of Head, who recorded a perfect game last Tuesday against Chamblee.
He was also quick to credit catcher Lauren Head, Brittney’s twin sister, for her work calling the game behind the plate.
“Short of two curveballs that hung, they were both dead on it all day. ... They’re smart and they work at it. So when you add the intangible twin sister thing with the work effort and some talent and being intelligent, that’s why we’re in such good shape.”
Richardson said that the remaining games will be big for the Lady Dawgs, since the region’s top two teams automatically qualify for the state playoffs.
“We’re mentally working on peaking at the right time, because again, we know the really tough teams are out there and on the way, and we would like to think that we’ve got a pretty good shot at the playoffs, so we want to get prepared for that too,” Richardson said.
Following a handful of nonregion games over the weekend, Central was 17-6-2 coming into the week.
Following a tough start to the season, West Forsyth had won three straight Region 7-AAA games entering the week, knocking off Gainesville 11-3 on Thursday to run the overall record to 7-10 and the region mark to 4-6.
North Forsyth split four games in the North Fall Classic at North Georgia College and State University over the weekend, beating Union County and Hebron Christian, while falling to White County and Habersham Central. The Lady Raiders were 10-15-1 entering the week, with an 0-6 Region 7-AAAAA mark.
South Forsyth entered the week at 7-11 on the year, with a 2-4 Region 7-AAAAA record. The Lady War Eagles split a pair of doubleheaders Friday and Saturday, beating Warner Robins and Northside-Warner Robins while losing to Kennesaw Mountain and Dacula.