Deerfield-Windsor softball survives to play again Friday

COLUMBUS — Deerfield-Windsor’s season was slipping away Thursday afternoon.

The Lady Knights had already lost their opening game of the GIAA Class AAA state tournament. Three innings into their elimination game against Tiftarea Academy, they trailed 6-0.

Then a young team facing the end of its season found seven more innings’ worth of fight in two furious rallies.

Deerfield-Windsor scored six runs in the fourth inning and seven more in the fifth, storming back to defeat Tiftarea 13-9 at the South Commons Softball Complex.

The victory kept the Lady Knights alive in the double-elimination tournament and advanced them to another elimination game against Athens Christian on Friday. The winner will continue its pursuit of a state championship. The loser will go home.

Deerfield-Windsor reached the losers’ bracket after falling 9-1 to rival Terrell Academy in Thursday’s opening round.

The Lady Knights stayed close early in that game. Emily Phillips singled home the tying run in the second inning after Terrell had taken a 1-0 lead.

The game changed in the third, when Terrell scored six runs behind an RBI double from Lily Addison, run-scoring singles from Blakely Aultman and Michaela Zingarelli and two Deerfield-Windsor errors.

Anna Beth Brady, Phillips, Jennings Curington, Claire Hockman and Millie Champion each had a hit for the Lady Knights, but Terrell finished with 13 hits and pulled away.

That loss left Deerfield-Windsor with no margin for error against Tiftarea.

For three innings, the situation only became more desperate.

Tiftarea scored once in the first and once in the second, then used doubles from Calla Joyner and Cloe Sercer and a single from Chloe Brand to build a 6-0 lead in the third.

The Lady Knights finally broke through in the fourth—and did it all at once.

Two Tiftarea errors brought home four runs before Hockman singled in two more, pulling Deerfield-Windsor even at 6-6.

Tiftarea responded with two runs in the bottom half and reclaimed an 8-6 advantage, pushing the Lady Knights back toward the brink.

Deerfield-Windsor answered again, this time with its bats.

The Lady Knights collected six hits and scored seven runs in the fifth inning to surge ahead 13-8. Curington delivered the biggest hit, a two-run single that helped turn another deficit into a five-run lead.

Mary Ruth Courtney carried Deerfield-Windsor the rest of the way. She pitched all seven innings, allowing nine runs but only three earned, while striking out two and walking one. Courtney also led the Lady Knights at the plate, going 3-for-4.

Hockman and Aubrey Ross added two hits apiece, and Ross drew two of Deerfield-Windsor’s six walks.

Athens Christian followed a first-round victory over John Milledge Academy with a 9-1 loss to nine-time defending champion Westfield, sending it into Friday’s elimination matchup.

Deerfield-Windsor’s path through Columbus has become the difficult one. Every game from here is win or go home.

After Thursday’s comeback, however, the Lady Knights have already shown how stubborn they can be when their season is on the line.