Fillies wrap up final home date with sweep
TIFTON – This year's team has been built around a solid core of sophomore talent and to this point in the year their position heading into Thursday's afternoon is where they wanted to be come tournament time.
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College has picked up the pace in the second stint of the conference schedule with the final home series taking place Wednesday afternoon against East Georgia. In the first round the Lady Bobcats and Fillies battled to split the series back in February with East Georgia taking the first game 3-2, where ABAC saw a 6-4 extra innings win.
It was a special day for 10 ladies as they played their final game at Fillies Field, where all of the Fillies players were recognized. Olivia Carter, Kali Price, Sydney Vaughn, Miranda Somers, Savannah Gabriel, Hayley Dobson, Trenity Coleman, Victoria Jordan, Bailey Leger, and Skylar Dorough all took the field together one last time at home. What they did a year ago produced positive results at times but a year later this group is more seasoned and each player has played an important role for them getting to the top spot in Region 17.
At home a year ago, 10 wins highlighted the record overall. This year has boosted 15 wins with the Sophomore class going out with style with their third consecutive sweep to give them their 18thconference victory on the season.
As for the two games Wednesday afternoon, Kameron Coggins once again stayed untouched in giving up a run to East Georgia. In her last three starts it has been consistent with offensive run support with her last run given up in a game started three weeks ago. Coggins got back to work early to set the early tone pitching the team to a 4-0 decision in game one.
Coggins has pitched the Fillies team to 15 wins on the year through 144 innings pitched and as a freshman she has some feats of her as she takes the top spot in a few statistical categories entering the last two regular season games. First, she leads the conference in strikeouts with 120 and secondly an ERA of 1.41.
The other pitcher behind her in the ERA department was East Georgia Myranda Hand, who started against Coggins and the Fillies in game one.
ABAC started off offensively on a roll after Coggins held the bats silent in the top of the first. In the bottom half of the inning, Dobson knocked the first base hit of the game for the hosts. Dobson reached second on a fielder's choice, and went to third on a Carter single to center. With one out in the inning, Vaughn hit her fourth pitch to right field, but Dobson tagged up from third to plate the first run of the game.
A few defensive miscues by the Lady Bobcats in the next frame after being held scoreless is what led to the next run lighting up the board for the home team. Dobson had the only hit in the frame, but Dorough hit a hard hit ball on the ground to score Price.
With ABAC leading 2-0 after two complete in the third, Carter started with a double, Vaughn singled, Gabriel singled, and Price recorded a base hit to put two more runs on the board. Carter and Vaughn marched across the plate for the third and fourth run.
A single by Kayla James in the fifth inning was a positive for East Georgia for their only base hit of the game.
Carter, Dobson, and Price each collected two hits in the game to lead the Fillies offensively. Vaughn and Gabriel added one apiece to the total of nine.
In game two, East GA captured the lead in the first inning. The visitors scored one run when Hand singled with one out in the first inning, plating Taylor Long.
Offensively, ABAC was held off the board for the first several innings. Vaughn would record the first hit in the second frame, but the hosts wouldn't come away with any runs until the third frame. A couple of hard hit ground balls were a little too much for East Georgia to handle, where Price and Dorough also added two hits in the inning to give ABAC a 4-1 lead. Leger also reached on an error but was stranded at third.
Dorough added a hit in the sixth frame. Coleman put the ball in play in her at bat and once again reached safely on another defensive error, which scored the fifth and final run for the Fillies. Somers, pinch running for Dorough, scored the final run.
Massingill once again backed up Coggins in the circle. She went seven innings, giving up one run on five hits, and sat down eight on strikes for her 13th win on the year.
ABAC has notched the top spot in the conference entering Thursday's game in Cuthbert against Andrew College. The Fillies team has picked up their 28th win overall, winners of the last six games with 16 coming in the last 18 games.
Article contributed by J. Roy Rowland