Worth County, Jackson face winner-take-all Game 3 Tuesday in Sylvester

SYLVESTER — Columbus is one win away. Elimination is one loss away.

After an afternoon that tested far more than its softball skills, Worth County gets to decide which direction its season goes.

The Lady Rams (27-4) will host Jackson (16-15) at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in a winner-take-all Game 3, with an Elite Eight berth and a trip to next week’s GHSA state softball championship tournament in Columbus at stake.

Getting that chance required a 3-2 victory in Monday’s nightcap, a headfirst slide home with the deciding run and three final outs from a pitcher who had been struck in the face by a line drive an inning earlier.

Austyn Kate Rucker walked off the field after receiving attention in the sixth. She returned to the circle in the seventh.

“She wanted the ball and her parents gave the OK,” Worth County coach Zach Mauldin said. “That kid is something else.”

With the tying run at third and nobody out, Rucker shut the door.

Worth County had survived. Its season would reach another day.

Jackson won Monday’s opener 13-8, leaving the Lady Rams needing a victory to extend the series. For five innings of Game 2, Jackson pitcher Mikaela Harris gave them little reason to think one was coming.

Harris hadn’t allowed a hit. Rucker had surrendered only two, but the Lady Red Devils held a 1-0 lead on Victoria Clayton’s third-inning RBI double.

Worth County had found its way onto the bases through walks and errors. It couldn’t find its way into the hit column.

Then Isabelle Hancock beat a throw.

Leading off the sixth, Hancock hit a ground ball to shortstop and reached first ahead of the throw, breaking up Harris’ no-hitter. Molly Williford followed with a double to center, putting two runners in scoring position.

Laurie Pritchard’s ground ball to short brought Hancock home.

Five innings of frustration had finally produced a tie. In the bottom half, the game’s tension gave way to concern.

A line drive struck Rucker in the face, sending the ball bouncing toward the first-base side. Ansley Bartley gathered it and recorded the out before attention turned to the circle.

Coaches, medical professionals and Rucker’s parents attended to the pitcher. She eventually walked off under her own power, and Pritchard took over to finish the inning.

The score remained 1-1.

Worth County needed a run. It found two.

With one out in the seventh, Bartley singled to left. Kamryn Kendrick drove a double to the center-field fence, bringing Bartley all the way home and putting the Lady Rams ahead for the first time.

A groundout moved Kendrick to third. When a pitch got away, she broke for the plate and slid headfirst home.

That third run would make all the difference.

Rucker returned for the bottom of the seventh, but Jackson immediately threatened to undo Worth County’s work. Consecutive singles and a throwing error brought home a run and left runners at first and third with nobody out.

The Lady Rams’ lead was down to one. Jackson had three outs to bring the tying runner home.

Rucker never let it happen.

She retired the side without surrendering another run, finishing a game that had challenged Worth County at nearly every turn.

The narrow escape followed an opener in which neither team could keep the other quiet.

Jackson scored four runs in the first inning. Worth County answered with six runs on five hits in the second, surging ahead 7-4 behind a two-run double from Rucker.

But the Lady Red Devils wrestled back control in the fourth. Harris singled home a run, Mallorie Cook doubled in two and Arlajha Tomlinson added a run-scoring single.

Jackson collected 17 hits, with Cook and Blakeley Moody contributing three apiece. Harris drove in four runs.

Williford went 3-for-4 to lead Worth County’s 12-hit attack. Rucker drove in three runs, and Karlee Mathews added two hits.

Camden Biles pitched all seven innings for Jackson, allowing eight runs, only two earned. Pritchard went the distance for the Lady Rams, striking out six and walking one.

Worth County couldn’t recover in the opener. In the nightcap, it kept finding a way.

Now the Lady Rams have one more game to win — and a place in Columbus to chase.