GPC falls to Darton

COVINGTON, Ga. -- With the Region 17 regular season softball title on the line, Cara Law held true to the old axiom of bending, but not breaking.

The Darton College right-hander allowed eight Georgia Perimeter College base runners Thursday, yet just one scored in a complete-game effort, and a two-run rally in the top of the sixth inning lifted the visiting Cavaliers to a 2-1 victory in the second game of a doubleheader, clinching the league's top seed for next week's region tournament.

The host Jaguars, who won the opener 2-0 and finished 17-3 to Darton's 18-2, will be the region's No. 2 seed when the tournament opens April 29 at Strong Rock Christian School in Locust Grove.

The teams were scoreless through 31/2 innings in Game 2 before GPC took the first lead. Kacie Patterson led off the fourth with an infield single, and when no one covered second, Patterson nabbed the bag to get into scoring position with no outs.

After a pair of groundouts, Christina Ezell walked and Jamie Saunders followed with a single under shortstop Dionne Bishop's glove that plated Patterson for a 1-0 lead.

Ezell threw 121/3 scoreless innings over the first game-and-a-half, but Darton finally got to the former East Coweta hurler in the top of the sixth. Eugenia Egiazarova took Ezell's 2-1 offering and hammered it high over the left-field wall for a solo home run that tied the game at 1-1. With Jordan Cole at first following a one-out single, Brooke Tomlin ripped a run-scoring double to give the Cavaliers their first lead of the day at 2-1.

"I think (Ezell) got a little tired, she just got tired," GPC coach Ed Schutte said. "She hung one ball (and) look where it went -- over the fence."

Meanwhile, Law, who struck out seven, got stronger as the game continued. After the Jaguars scored their run in the fourth inning, Law retired 10 of the last 12 batters she faced, working around Kyla Tanner's pinch-hit single after Saunders' hit in the fourth, and leaving Brittany McSwain at second after the GPC leadoff hitter singled to start the fifth.

"The big hit when you needed it -- they got it the second game, we didn't get it. What can you say?" Schutte said. "We left seven base runners on in the second game; that was key. (We) can't leave seven on, not against that kind of competition. We'll see them again. Every time we've gone to (junior college) nationals, we've been a two-seed. Maybe that's a good omen."

Ezell seemed to enjoy the warm weather at the start of the evening, throwing a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts in the Jaguars' opening-game victory. The right-hander was perfect through 32/3 innings before Chantelle Curinton looped a single to right field with one out in the fourth.

Ezell got out of that jam by inducing an infield pop-up and GPC got its ace a run in its half of the inning. Facing Darton starter Katy Lewis in the bottom of the fourth, Patterson's fly ball was dropped by Curinton in left field, allowing the Jaguars' shortstop to get to second base with one out. Two batters later, Nicole Montesanti ripped a single that chased Patterson home for a 1-0 Jaguars lead.

Ezell gave up a ringing double to Josie Cox to start the fifth inning, but got stronger as the frame progressed, picking up consecutive strikeouts before a weak pop-out by Bishop ended the threat.

The Jaguars added to their lead, thanks to a pair of opposite-field hits in the fifth inning. Jamie Saunders led off the inning with a double in the right-field corner and was sacrificed to third. With two outs, McSwain, a former high school teammate of Lewis' at Loganville, flipped a run-scoring single over third base to make it a 2-0 game.

"It was just getting a big hit when we needed it," Schutte said.

After a perfect sixth inning, Darton threatened in the seventh. Curinton's second single of the game got things going, Cox walked with one out, and the pair moved up to third and second on catcher Devin Dossman's passed ball. But Ezell recorded her final strikeout on a nasty 3-2 pitch to Amanda Jaskolski, and a sharp groundout by Brittny Dennison was handled by Patterson, ending the game in 70 minutes.

Lewis took the loss in the opener, allowing six hits and two runs (one earned) in a complete-game effort.

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