ACMS Softball wins 6th Championship in 8 years
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By Eldon Deal
The Appling County Middle School softball team captured another conference championship last Saturday. In the last eight years, ACMS has competed in every championship game and has won six championships and two runner-up trophies. Last year was a runner-up year, but we have to put an asterisk by that one because there was no championship game played. The athletic directors, by majority vote, decided not to play the championship game because we recently had Hurricane Helene.
Long County was declared the champion with no losses. ACMS was runner-up with one loss to Long County. I could be wrong, but it seems they may have wanted someone else to be champion since Appling had won the last five championships. ACMS has a history of losing to a team during the season and then beating them in the championship. You don’t need lights to play a day game. This year, they faced Bacon County in the championship game and came away with a 10 to 2 win. ACMS was the number one seed in the playoffs, so the game was held at the local ACMS field. Bacon was the number two seed. There was a large crowd of fans at the game. I heard an estimate of at least 300. A large crowd and a championship on the line probably caused the players to feel a lot of pressure.
In the semi-finals, ACMS hosted the number four seed Pierce County, and Bacon hosted the number three seed Brantley County. Going into the semi-finals, it seemed that the four teams were fairly equal and the championship could be taken by any one of the teams.
In the championship game, the Lady Rams jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first inning after Bacon went three up and three down in the top of the first. Peyton Scott led off with a single then stole second. Espy Williams followed with a single to score Peyton. Alana Mclellan and Cynclair Shelby each drew a walk, then scored when Ellee Ray Livingston reached on an error to put Appling up 4 to 0.
They didn’t stop there, as Aria Johnson reached base on an error and Claire Turner followed with a single to score Ellee Ray. Peyton Scott, batting for the second time in the inning, reached base on Bacon’s third error of the inning, and Aria and Claire scored to make it 7 to 0. Appling added three more in the third inning when Claire hit a double, then scored on Bristol Johnson’s single. Peyton followed with another single, and she and Bristol scored on Alana McLellan’s single to put Appling up 10 to 1. Bacon managed to add one more run in the fourth inning to make it 10 to 2, which was the final score. The game ended in the fifth inning on the “run rule.”
Leading hitters for the Lady Rams with two hits each were Claire Turner and Peyton Scott. Espy Williams, Alana McLellan, Ellee Ray Livingston, and Bristol Johnson had one hit each. As a team, they only struck out one time. On the defensive side, Alana McLellan had another good day as pitcher. She pitched all five innings and allowed only two hits, two runs, no walks, and struck out four batters. The defensive play of the game was made by J’myrica Smith, who made a diving catch for a fly ball in left field. Honorable mention goes to first baseman Cynclair Shelby, who prevented a couple of errors by catching an overthrow for an out and dug one throw out of the dirt for an out. The defense has improved over the season and they have been playing great lately. The outfield and infield have been making a lot of really good plays, the pitching has been very good, and the catcher, Jayna Edenfield, has been taking care of business behind home plate.
Going into the semi-final game against Pierce County, the Lady Rams were a bit nervous and with good reason, as Pierce had beaten them back on September 11 by the score of 11 to 2. The Appling girls jumped out front in the first inning, where they put 3 on the scoreboard. Peyton Scott led off in the bottom of the first inning with a single. Espy Williams followed with a walk then Cynclair Shelby hit a single to score Peyton. Ellee Ray Livingston grounded out to score Espy, then Jayna Edenfield reached base on an error to score Cynclair, which gave the Lady Rams a 3 to 0 lead.
In the top of the second inning, Pierce managed to score one run but left the bases loaded. In the bottom of the second, Appling went three up and three down. In the top of the third inning, Pierce added one more run to make it close at 3 to 2. The Lady Rams added four runs in the third inning to go up 7 to 2. Alana McLellan led off and reached on an error, Cynclair drew a walk, then Ellee Ray singled to score Alana. Aria Johnson followed with a single to score Cynclair and Ellee Ray. After a Claire Turner single and a Mariah Cruz walk, Peyton singled to score Claire.
There was no more scoring until the bottom of the sixth inning. Alana led off with a walk, stole second, and went to third on a passed ball, then scored on a second passed ball to make the final score 8 to 2. Peyton was the leading hitter in the game with two hits. Cynclair, Ellee Ray, Aria, and Claire had one hit each. Third baseman, Aria Johnson gets the nod for the best defensive plays of the game. She snagged three hard-hit balls, one grounder and two line drives. I overheard a Pierce fan say, “That third baseman is killing us.” Shortstop Peyton Scott had six put-outs. I’m always confident when she gets the ball that she is going to make an accurate throw. Alana Mclellan pitched all seven innings and allowed only 4 hits, 2 runs(1 earned), walked 2, and struck out 4.
For all of you Pierce County haters, especially those suffering from PDS(Pierce derangement syndrome), you will like this info. This past week, ACMS defeated Pierce in the softball semi-finals, the Lady Pirates defeated Pierce to win the region in softball, and the ACMS football defeated Pierce.
Congratulations to the players and coaches on another successful season. The ACHS Lady Pirates will be gaining five good players next year if they choose to play. Eighth graders Peyton Scott, Alana McLellan, Claire Turner, Espy Williams, and Mariah Cruz will be an asset to the Lady Pirates.
The question ‘What about next year?’ always comes up at the end of a season. These five eighth graders will certainly be missed, but I expect the Lady Rams should do well again next year. They have a lot of talent in their sixth graders and seventh graders and hopefully will be adding some more next year from the fifth grade.
Kudos to all those who helped make this season a success: coaches, parents, businesses, volunteers, and fans. Personally, I would like to thank BNB Broadcasting(and their sponsors) for providing the live stream coverage of the championship. They have covered every championship since 2020. My wife, Pam, and I have been to all of the championship games up until this year, however, we could not go this year because she was in the hospital in Vidalia. We did catch the live stream on the TV. Like us, there are many other folks who could not be there but still watched the live stream.
On a side note: I think Pierce County may have more hate and derangement syndrome toward Appling than we do for them, and I have an example that may prove that. In the Vidalia hospital, a male nurse in his late 20s asked about the game on TV and where we were from. His response was, “I hate Appling.” He also said he moved from Pierce County in the sixth grade to Wheeler County. Poor guy, he has been suffering from ADS (Appling Derangement Syndrome) for all those years, even though he hasn’t lived in Pierce County since his childhood.
