Region 7-4A softball: Northwest upsets Heritage to lock up top-four finish

Published 11:55 pm Wednesday, October 8, 2014

After a disappointing regular season by its standards, on Wednesday the Northwest Whitfield High School softball team reminded Region 7-4A who the two-time defending Georgia High School Association state champs are in Class 4A.

Following an extra-innings win over Southeast Whitfield on Monday, the Lady Bruins (16-15), the No. 4 seed entering the region tournament, defeated top-seeded Heritage-Catoosa (24-7), 4-3, on Wednesday in the second round of tournament play at Heritage Point in Dalton.

“I told the girls on the bus that the pressure is on Heritage, I think,” Northwest coach Jason Brooker said. “They’re expected to make a run at the state (championship) and nobody but us expects us to go that far. But as long as we believe it and expect it and play loose like we did tonight, we’ll see.”

The victory might have worn down Northwest as it fell to No. 7 seed Gilmer (12-14) 2-0 in the third round of the winners bracket. Gilmer — which defeated Pickens 7-1 in the second round of winners bracket play — advances to the region championship to be played at 3 p.m. Friday.

Northwest will play in the losers bracket finals at 7 p.m. today and will face the winner of the 5 p.m. losers bracket semifinal game between No. 6 seed Pickens (14-17) and Heritage. All four of the remaining teams will represent Region 7-4A in the state playoffs.

The winner of the losers bracket finals will need to defeat Gilmer twice and a second game, if necessary, will be played at 5 p.m. Friday.

Heritage defeated No. 3 seed LaFayette (20-11), 12-3, in the losers bracket while Pickens defeated No. 5 seed Southeast (15-17), 4-2, ending the Lady Raiders’ season after Southeast rallied to defeat No. 8 seed Cartersville (10-19), 6-2, in the first round of losers bracket play.

“We set a lot of goals for ourselves this year, and one was winning a region tournament game for the first time (since 2008) and we did that,” Southeast coach Aubrey Shields said.

As for Northwest, BriLeigh Baggett earned the victory over Heritage by pitching a complete game and allowing three runs on five hits with four strike outs. She also finished 2-for-4 at the plate with a home run.

Shelby Ralston finished 2-for-3, while McCall Carlock had a double and scored a run.

The Lady Bruins were held to two hits in the loss to Gilmer.

“That was an emotional game,” Brooker said of the game with Heritage. “We battled back and just kept chipping away.”