Glascock Lady Panthers earn state runner-up title

The Glascock Lady Panthers finished their season with a brutal battle through the elite 8, losing game one and then clawing their way through every opponent, leaving every ounce of grit and effort they had on the diamond and earning a state runner-up trophy, the closest the school has ever been to a championship.

“In Columbus, everybody who was on the field for us had a moment,” Coach Johnny Cantrell said days after the championship game. “That’s what made our run through the bracket really memorable. There was somebody in every position who made a play that helped us get to the next spot.”

The Season 

Cantrell said he knew going into this season that he had a team of athletes capable of going all the way.

The Lady had won the regional championship the year before and made it to the Elite 8 in Columbus, the final gauntlet on the way to the championship. With four seniors who had started for at least four years and strong underclassmen, he knew they needed to see as tough competition in their non-region play as possible.

“This is by far the toughest schedule I’ve ever made for us,” Cantrell said.

He lined up games against teams like South Effingham, Grovetown, Morgan County, Vidalia, Thomson, Bryan County, Harlem and East Side out of Covington. Seven of the teams on their regular schedule were teams that would make it to the Elite 8 in their divisions.

“We wanted to see the best pitching and really challenge our girls,” Cantrell said. “I told them before the season even started that their batting averages were not likely to be a pretty as they once were, but we would be ready for the playoffs.”

The Panthers were 17-4-1 before the super regionals.

Cantrell said that exceptional pitching and a tenacious defense really carried them through the season.

“It took a while for our bats to warm up, but that’s probably because we saw really good pitching all year,” the coach said. “We had 12 games that were decided by one or two runs.”

The four seniors leading the team were Grace Kelley, a pitcher who has committed to Presbyterian College; third baseman Jacey Usry who has committed to Augusta University; short stop Lexi Mitchell; and outfielder Addie Bentley.

Cantrell said that those seniors were supported by junior center fielder Alexiana Mitts who led the team with four home runs; junior designated batter Zanya Harris who hit a winning run against GMC in Columbus; and junior first baseman Hannah Taylor who hit her first home run during the playoffs.

The Panthers hosted a fastpitch super regional following a 1-0 victory over GMC in the regional championship on Oct. 10. The win gave Glascock back-to-back region titles after securing their first such title in program history in 2022. In the super regionals the Panthers won their first game 12-0 over Towns County and then went on to defeat Schley County 1-0 in a 10-inning thriller. In the finals, they beat Schley again, 3-0 to secure their second trip to the Elite 8 in Columbus.

Competing in the Elite 8 

In game one, on Wednesday, Oct. 25, Glascock was paired with Wilcox County to open the tournament. Kelley and Mitts both hit solo homeruns in the third inning to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead which they held until the seventh inning when Wilcox batters successively connected on a single, a triple and a homer to break up the no-hitter, flip the lead and snatch a 3-2 win from the Panthers.

“After game one I was in shock, just the way that it ended,” Cantrell said. “We kind of let them have the afternoon just to kind of be. On the bus I told them that somebody out of the loser’s bracket is going to have a chance to play for a state title, why not us. I kept saying it over and over and over. And we just kept fighting. They didn’t blink. They kept battling.”

On Thursday, Oct. 26, Glascock came back to face Bowdon in game two.

Usry started off the scoring with a solo homerun in the first inning. The Panthers added two more runs in the top of the second to take a 3-0 lead. Bowdon managed to rally and close the gap to 3-2 in bottom of the third before Bentley caught a fly ball in left and threw out the runner at third.

“It was a perfect throw for the double play. The play went crazy,” Cantrell said.

The Panthers earned two more runs in the top of the fourth. Taylor led off the inning with her first varsity homeruns and the Panthers ended up winning 7-2 with Kelley striking out Bowden in the bottom of the seventh.

The Panthers faced Bowdon’s Bulldogs for the fourth time Friday, Oct. 27 at 11 a.m. It was another pitching duel, with the only run in the game being pushed across the plate by Mitchell hitting a double scoring Harris giving the Panthers the 1-0 win and sending Glascock to their first Final Four.

At 3 p.m., the Panthers had their rematch with Wilcox County, the team that had sent them to the loser’s bracket. This time there would be no late game rally as the Panthers carried a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth and then added three more runs to take the score to 6-0. Wilcox’s seven hits for the game were all singles and just one runner made it past second base. Kelley again posted double digit strikeouts for the game.

Saturday morning the Panthers squared off against Washington-Wilkes, with the winner set to face Lanier County for the championship.

“The girls were serious. They were focused. They were ready,” Cantrell said.

Mitchell led off the top of the first with a single. Usry’s RBI double and another RBI single from Mitts up the Panthers up 2-0 until the sixth inning.

Sophomore catcher Payton Parrish connected on the first pitch she saw in the inning for her first varsity homerun. Three more runs in the seventh pushed the Panther lead to 6-0.

The Tigers managed just one hit and three total base runners as Kelley struck out 13 while pitching her third consecutive shutout.

The Lady Panthers had racked up four straight wins in the playoffs and only Lanier stood between them and a championship.

The game started out as another pitching duel. The Bulldogs scored a single run in the third to go up 1-0. Mitts led off with a hard-hit double, but nine of the first 10 Glascock batters went down with strikeouts.

The Panther bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth. Kelley singled and Usry deliver a 201 pitch over the leftfield fence to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead.

Then the Tigers bats found a rhythm in the fifth with a 2 out, three-run homer to regain the lead 4-2. Single runs in the sixth and seventh made the final score 6-2 and delivered Lanier their first ever championship.

“By the end we were beat up and tired and we just ran out of gas,” Cantrell said. “But our girls gave us every ounce of grit and determination they had in them. I couldn’t be more proud.”

The Panthers placed as state runner-up, their best finish in fastpitch softball program history and finished their season 24-6-1.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Glascock Lady Panthers earn state runner-up title