Newton Citizen

WOODSTOCK - The Heritage softball team saw its season come to an abrupt end Saturday in the Class AAAA North Sectional at Hobgood Park.

The Lady Patriots (23-10-1) made too many mistakes and dropped a 7-4 decision to Alexander in the losers' bracket, which ended their season after two games in the state sectional. Heritage fell 2-0 to Northwest Whitfield in the opening round Friday.

"Like I told the girls, it's disappointing because we did not play real well today in all phases of the game," Heritage coach Dickey Hightower said. "We didn't do what we needed to do, but the other team was good and they hit the ball. But we helped them a lot."

Heritage took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Jessica Hornsby doubled, moved to third on Amanda Voyles' single and scored on Jamie Melson's single.

But Alexander struck for one run in the third, fourth and fifth innings to take a 3-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Heritage's Simone Davenport started a two-out rally with a single. After Whitney Phillips reached on an error, Callie Alford loaded the bases with an infield single.

Kat Baize followed with an RBI infield single to cut the deficit to 3-2. Then, Phillips scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

However, Alexander struck for four unearned runs in the top of the sixth to re-establish a 7-3 lead.

The Lady Patriots committed two errors to start the inning before Logan Foulks smacked a two-run triple and Amber Wright added an RBI double for Alexander.

"That inning really hurt. On the first two batters, we should have had two outs, but we didn't have any and then things compounded after that," Hightower said. "Then, they scored their runs. When you get to this level, you've got to play a close to perfect game to win. I love our team, but we did not do that today."

In the bottom of the seventh, Heritage's Alford delivered an RBI double with two outs, cutting the deficit to 7-4. But the Lady Patriots couldn't get any closer.

"I told the girls that I'm real proud of them," Hightower said. "We had a good season, and I hope they remember the season and not just this last ball game."

Jeff Gillespie can be reached at jeff.gillespie@rockdalecitizen.com.