Newton Citizen

COVINGTON - Eastside pitcher Amanda Henderson was two batters away from pitching the perfect game in their 2-0 win over Elbert County on Thursday.

In the top of the fourth inning, Henderson gave up a walk and a hit as her only blemish in the outing.

"Amanda did a great job. She has a lot of weight (on her shoulders) this year because I graduated three pitchers last year. But so far she's doing great and stepping up. She's maturing like she's suppose to," Eastside head coach Heather Wood said. "She's the only pitcher we've got. We've got a JV pitcher for backup, Taylor Causey, but Amanda's our pitcher."

Besides the two mishaps, Henderson pitched a solid game, striking out 14 batters.

The Lady Eagles (4-1-1 overall, 1-0 Region 8-AAA) did not have a lot of production offensively as they only had four hits.

Fortunately for Eastside, the Lady Devils (2-2, 0-1) committed three errors that led to runs.

The first run for the Lady Eagles, scored by Bri Chambers, came in the third inning.

After being moved to third base on a Kayla Jones sacrifice bunt, Chambers scored when Sierra Petree's grounder came off the Elbert County shortstop. Chambers reached first base as a result of an error by the shortstop.

Elbert County's shortstop committed another error in the sixth inning that allowed Petree to cross the plate, giving Eastside a 2-0 lead.

"The innings that we scored, fundamentally we did what we're supposed to. We laid the bunt down and put the ball in play. But we struggled offensively. We have a lot of work to do," Wood said.

Henderson led the Lady Eagles at the plate going 2-for-2, while Jones and Petree got the other hits.

"We just didn't make the adjustments. We work on hitting every day, we just have to keep working. It's early and we're still trying get out the kinks. I think we'll be OK," Wood said.

"It feels good to get ahead in the region because we have two big region games coming up next week, Oconee County) and Morgan (County), so it's important to get a win right off."

Manny Fils can be reached at manny.fils@newtoncitizen.com.