The Charlton County softball team saw their season come to a close last Monday after dropping two games to Taylor County in the opening round of the GHSA State Playoffs.
After making the long four-hour road trip to face the Region 6 champions the Maidens played well early on but couldn’t get key hits when needed. In the top of the first of the opener the Maidens loaded the bases with no one out but couldn’t get a run across.
Taylor would push a run across in the bottom of the first to take a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until the fourth when Taylor pushed across another run to take a two run lead. But Charlton couldn’t get any offense going and in the fifth Taylor added four more runs to take a 6-0 lead.
In the sixth the Maidens tried to come back. Jules Gowen led off with a single and Macariyah Gibbs singled with two outs. A double by EmmaRae Roberson scored both runners cutting the Taylor lead to 6-2. But that’s all they could manage and after getting retired in the seventh the Maidens would lose the opener.
Charlton would outhit Taylor nine to eight in the game with Gowen leading the way with three hits.
In the second game Taylor scored twice in the top of the first but the Maidens answered with one of their own. Kennedy Taylor led off with a double and Ella Privett singled her home to cut the deficit in half.
Taylor scored twice more in the second but Charlton added another run to keep it close. Gibbs singled and stole second before scoring on a hit by Callie Carter to make it 4-2.
Charlton would chip away scoring another run in the third when Layla Nash tripled and scored on a passed ball. In the fourth Charlton tied it up at 4-4 when Carter singled, stole second and scored on a single by Harley Roddenberry.
But from that point it would be all Taylor County as they scored once in the fifth, six times in the sixth and three more times in the seventh to take a 14-4 win and end the Maidens season. Roddenberry picked up three hits while Carter and Nash both had two hits.
