VALDOSTA — Sometimes timing can be everything.
Lowndes High’s softball team has had an up-and-down year, with performances ranging from outstanding to terrible.
But last weekend, when it mattered most, they were unbeatable. Now they’re playing against the best teams in the state.
Lowndes has made it to the state’s elite eight, played in Columbus, for the third year in a row. The Vikettes (21-14) will open the double-elimination tournament against state No. 5 Lassiter (28-6) at noon on Thursday.
“It’s nice to being going into the last week of the season and still be playing, and still have a 1-in-8 shot to win (state),” Lowndes head coach Jared Dickey said. “We’ve been blessed to have three real successful years in a row, and four out of six.
“It’s a testament to these girls that they’ve worked hard all year long. We’ve been telling them, as a coaching staff, that they could do it, and that we believed in them. I don’t think it really clicked until Friday night, when we beat Jenkins 6-2 and blew out Newton 14-1, and they banged out 17 hits. After that, I think a light switch came on, and they realized, ‘Hey, we can do this.’”
Whatever happens in Columbus will add another chapter to an eventful year for the Vikettes.
Lowndes started the year with most of its starters back from last year’s team, which finished fifth at state. The Vikettes began the season strong, and looked like they would challenge for the region championship after winning seven of their first eight region games.
But then they went in the tank. The same lineup that had scored 19 runs against Jordan, 14 against Coffee and 11 against Brunswick suddenly lost its final four region games by a combined score of 8-1. Then came the low point, an 11-1 six-inning loss to Houston County in the region tournament.
That loss to Houston, though, woke up the Vikettes. The team that stepped on the field six days later in the Sectional tournament was a much different one. They beat Jenkins 6-2. They hammered Newton 14-1 in five innings. That gave them a rematch with Houston, with a trip to Columbus on the line.
The Lady Bears had beaten the Vikettes each of the previous two Saturdays. They wouldn’t make it three in a row. Dionne Bishop’s two-run homer in the third inning erased a 2-0 Houston lead. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Sarah Santana deposited a pitch over the left field fence, giving Lowndes a 3-2 win and punching its ticket to Columbus.
“We finally played up to our potential,” Dickey said. “When it really counted, we put it all together. We caught fire Friday night, hit it well, and scored some runs. Saturday, it went from there. We played great defense, had a good, close ballgame with Houston County, and found a way to win it at the end.
“Dionne came up big with a two-run shot for us, and then Sarah came up in the seventh and hit a solo shot. (Lauren) Revels pitched a great game.”
Now it’s on to the state finals, and Dickey knows his team will be battling the state’s best.
“There’s not many slouches (in Columbus),” he said. “You’ve always got four good teams coming out of the north.”
Dickey says he doesn’t know much about Lassiter, but he does know one thing — they’re good.
“They’re always a good program. They’ve always got a good pitcher,” he said. “They’ve got a North Carolina signee (.600-hitting Kelli Wheeler) and a Georgia Tech signee (slugger Jessica Sinclair).”
Lassiter was the opponent in one of Lowndes’ most memorable wins. In the 2002 state tournament in Columbus, the Vikettes beat the Lady Trojans 3-2 in eight innings. That Lowndes team wound up the state runners-up.
“I’d put that win up close to the top,” Dickey said. “But right now, I’d have to put last Saturday’s win at the top, with Sarah Santana hitting the home run to put us in the state tournament.”
Lowndes is one of three Region 1 teams playing in Columbus. Regular season champion Warner Robins and Tift County are also making the trip.
“I’ve been saying all year that Region 1 is the toughest region in the south,” Dickey said. “This is the second year in a row that three teams from our region have advanced. Had it not been for Tift having to play Houston in a loser’s bracket game the last two years, we might have had four teams in there.
“It helps us, going up there, to know we’ve played the toughest competition in the south.”
The other AAAAA teams playing in Columbus are: No. 2 Mill Creek, No. 3 Grayson (which beat Lowndes earlier this year), No. 8 Peachtree Ridge and East Coweta. Four of the top seven teams in the most recent state poll lost in Sectionals, including No. 1 Kennesaw Mountain.
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