Ware County dropped its first two games of the 2024 campaign falling at home to Appling County and on the road at Glynn Academy.
The Lady Gators (0-2) fell to the Class AA defending state champions and pre-season No. 1 Lady Pirates 13-4 Tuesday, August 13. They followed with a 5-2 setback in Brunswick to the Lady Red Terrors.
Ware County hosted Class 5A seventh-ranked South Effingham Tuesday (August 20). The Lady Gators wrap up the season series with Appling County Thursday, August 22 in Baxley with a 6 p.m. first pitch. Region 1 foe Perry visits Tuesday, August 27 at 5 p.m.
No. 1 Appling County..................................13 Lady Gators.................................................4
The Lady Pirates scored the final 13 runs after spotting Ware County a 4-0 lead through two innings.
The Lady Gators did all of their scoring in the second inning. Amberly Padgett (1-for-2) lined a leadoff. Following the first out, Ella Musgrove (1-for-3) singled.
Kayleigh LeMay’s (2-for-3) triple to right scored both Padgett and Musgrove for a 2-0 lead. Paislee Wildes reached on her fielder’s choice grounder with LeMay retired at the plate.
Wildes, who raced to second on a throwing error on the play, scored on Molly Smith’s (1-for-4) two-out triple. Kara Coleman (2-for-4) followed with a runscoring double extending the margin to 4-0.
Appling County started its comeback in the third inning scoring three runs against Reagan Middleton (5+ IP, 10 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 4 K, 2 BB) to get to within 4-3.
A three-run fifth gave the visitors the lead for good at 6-4.
The Lady Pirates scored five runs in the sixth getting a grandslam homer for the big blow in extending the lead to 10-4. Appling County added two runs in the seventh against LeMay (2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 BB, 1 WP) for the final margin.
Ashlyn Jacobs (1-for-3) recorded the other base hit for the Lady Gators.
Glynn Academy.....................5 Lady Gators ..........................2
BRUNSWICK — The Lady Red Terrors broke a 1-all tie in the bottom of the third on a run-scoring grounder in taking the lead for good against Ware County.
Glynn Academy struck first in its first at bat against Middleton. The Lady Terrors put their first two batters on and scored on a fielder’s choice groundout.
The Lady Gators evened the score in the third inning after stranding a runner in each of the first two frames. Paislee Wildes drew a leadoff walk and was sacrificed to second by Smith. Three batters later, Middleton’s two-out single drove home Wildes to even the score at 1apiece.
The Lady Red Terrors responded with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning. A one-out single and two stolen bases was followed by a run-scoring groundout for the 2-1 lead.
Glynn Academy plated two runs in the fourth taking advantage of a pair of errors to extend the margin to 4-1.
Ware County pulled to within 4-2 in the fifth getting a two-out, runscoring double from Ashlyn Jacobs. Coleman lined a one-out single, stole second and scored on the hit.
The Lady Terrors added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning on a one-out sacrifice fly. A leadoff hit batter and thefts of second and third base set up the run.
