After the exciting 4-3 walk off win over the region champion Vidalia Indians last Thursday night, the team had to wait until the next afternoon to find out their playoff destination. Fifty six high schools competed in softball in Class A, D-1 this year. The Lady Tigers already knew that they had qualified for the playoffs, but they were eager to see where they would end up on the 32 team playoff bracket. When the GHSA bracket was released for Class A, Division-1, it revealed that Swainsboro would be the number 20 seed with the Lady tigers traveling to the number 13 seed, East Laurens.
The format for the first round of the GHSA playoffs will be a best two out of three game series. Swainsboro will travel to East Laurens and play at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon (October 15). If the two teams split the games on Wednesday, they will play the deciding game at East Laurens on Thursday afternoon.
By the numbers: East Laurens finished the regular season with a 20-5 record while Swainsboro finished the season with a 14-9 record. The list of common opponents of Swainsboro and East Laurens this season include: Bleckley County, Vidalia, Dublin, and Washington County. East Laurens had a 5-3 record against those common opponents while Swainsboro had a 3-3 record against those common opponents.
Both programs feature excellent pitching staffs. The Swainsboro pitching staff is led by sophomore Chloe Boulineau and freshman Sidney Lively. Boulineau has been the workhorse all season for the Lady Tigers and at times she has been dominant in the circle. The freshman Lively mainly pitched in JV games early in the season but has really come on strong to provide a second option. The duo has put up some excellent stats this season compiling a cumulative 2.19 ERA over 127.0 innings pitched. They have allowed 114 hits and 64 walks while striking out 232 batters.
East Laurens is led by the Lowther sisters, senior Deanna and junior DeAndrea. They are the daughters of head coach Danielle Lowther and assistant coach Dwayne Lowther. East Laurens has simply put up some unbelievable pitching stats this year. They have a cumulative 0.81 ERA over 120.2 innings pitched and have allowed just 55 hits and 40 walks while striking out 201 batters.
On offense, East Laurens has outscored their opponents by a score of 266-31 while Swainsboro has outscored their opponents by a score of 115-68. The two teams played in different regions so comparing those stats could be like comparing apples to oranges. That’s the beauty of sports. Games are not played on paper and the numbers that you put up in the regular season don’t mean much when it comes time for playoff games. What we do know, however, is that we have two teams that have had very successful seasons, and both want to move on to the second round!
