Week 9 Softball Notebook and Rankings

Notebook: Buford, Marist play for region titles

Class AAAA No. 10 Marist beat Chamblee in the Region 6 tournament Tuesday night and will play Redan Thursday for the region championship. Redan beat Therrell 15-5 Tuesday to advance to the region final.

The War Eagles (15-10, 5-0) have won their region championship 13 straight seasons and were state champions in Class AAAA in 2008 and 2009. Marist has been led this season at the plate by junior Grace Packer, who has a .569 batting average, and senior catcher Taylor Bradley, a Georgia State commitment who is batting .429.

Class AAAAAA No. 4 Kennesaw Mountain will play for the Region 4 title Wednesday in a 3-game series against Hillgrove. The Mustangs have been led this season by Malea Bell and Kathryn Woody. Bell is hitting .437 with five homers and 14 doubles while Woody is hitting .427 with 19 RBIs. Woody is also leading the team with 23 wins and a 1.24 ERA.

On Tuesday, Class AAA No. 1 Buford beat East Hall 8-0 to clinch a spot in Thursday's Region 7-AAA championship game. The Wolves (28-1) scored seven runs in the first inning and pitcher Bria Bush (11-1) tossed her 10th complete game of the year. Senior Nikki Cook was 2-for-3 with a triple and two stolen bases.

Buford won the tournament's top seed after finishing unbeaten in region play, including a 10-2 win over North Hall Oct. 3. Pitcher Emily Crocker improved to 7-0 with the win in three innings pitched. Crocker had four strikeouts and gave up just one hit.

The Wolves then beat West Hall (15-2), Banks County (8-0) and East Hall (8-0) in the region tournament.



Rankings: Collins Hill, Ola reach top of rankings

Entering the region tournaments, many programs played games against teams from outside of their classifications. Therefore, there is little overall movement in this week's poll. Here are some of the changes:

Collins Hill took over at No. 1 in Class AAAAAA after both Lassiter and Brookwood took recent losses.

Ola, meanwhile, ascended to the top spot in Class AAAAA after embarking on a winning streak that stretches back to early September.

Jackson entered the Class AAA poll after beating Peach County.



WEEK 9 RANKINGS



Class AAAAAA

1. Collins Hill

2. Lassiter

3. Brookwood

4. Kennesaw Mountain

5. Archer

5. Hillgrove

7. North Gwinnett

8. North Cobb

9. Mill Creek

10. Tift County



Class AAAAA

1. Ola

2. Allatoona

3. Northgate

4. Greenbrier

5. Heritage-Conyers

6. Creekview

7. Union Grove

8. Sequoyah

9. North Paulding

10. Pope



Class AAAA

1. Madison County

2. Heritage-Catoosa

3. Northwest Whitfield

4. Veterans

5. Locust Grove

6. South Effingham

7. Wayne County

8. Columbus

9. LaGrange

10. Marist



Class AAA

1. Buford

2. Ringgold

3. Tattnall County

4. Pierce County

5. Central-Carrollton

6. Chapel Hill

7. Rockmart

8. Blessed Trinity

9. Jackson

10. Dodge County



Class AA

1. Heard County

2. Wesleyan

3. Jeff Davis

4. Bacon County

5. Vidalia

6. Calhoun

7. Bowdon

8. Westminster

9. Jefferson

10. Cook



Class A

1. Gordon Lee

2. Georgia Military

3. First Presbyterian Day

4. Eagle's Landing Christian

5. Pace Academy

6. Telfair County

7. George Walton Academy

8. Prince Avenue Chr.

9. Baconton Charter

10. Glascock County