Dahlonega Regional bracket
INDIANAPOLIS − The Flagler College softball team will open the 2011 NCAA Division II Southeast Region Tournament against Augusta State University on Friday (May 13) at 5 p.m. at Haines & Carolyn Hill Stadium in Dahlonega, Ga. The official announcement came this morning as the NCAA broadcast the field over the internet.
“We have been anticipating starting off with Augusta State,” said Flagler head softball coach
Kristen Overton. “We have played them four times this year and they are a good team. They have good pitching; they make the plays and are well coached.”
Flagler (40-16) is the No. 4 seed in the tournament. The Saints have posted a 7-3 record in its last 10 games, which includes a 3-1 loss to Augusta State in a Peach Belt Conference Tournament elimination game. The Saints placed five players on the All-Peach Belt Conference second-team –
Breezy Collings (Orange City, Fla., Brevard CC),
Alona Personius (Lake Stevens, Wash., Florida State College-Jacksonville),
Tori Jolley (Keystone Heights, Fla., Keystone Heights HS),
Lauren Bessent (Jacksonville, Fla., Trinity Christian Academy) and
Kelly Riddick (Hampton, Fla., Central Florida CC). Colings leads the team with a .398 batting average, 68 hits and a school record 56 runs batted in. Bessent is batting .344 with 66 hits, four triples and 21 stolen bases. Personius is batting .324 with a school record 11 home runs, 45 runs scored and a .595 slugging percentage. Jolley is hitting .291 and broke the school record for assists with 120. Riddick holds an 18-4 record with a 2.11 earned run average. She leads the team with 122 strikeouts.
The Saints and Jaguars met four times this season, each winning two games. The two teams split a conference doubleheader on Apr. 5 with Flagler winning the opener 4-3 and Augusta State took the nightcap 3-2. In the conference tournament in Florence, Flagler defeated Augusta State 5-2 in the first round, but lost the elimination game.
In the first game of the Apr. 5 doubleheader, the Saints tallied three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Trailing 3-1, Personius reached on a fielder's choice to start the rally. Collings walked and Jolley was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Kaycee Lisa (Seminole, Fla., Seminole HS) followed with a single to left to knock in one run and
Brittany Simmons (Ocala, Fla., Chattanooga State Tech CC) followed with a single to left-center to score another run. On the play, the Augusta State center fielder bobbled the ball which allowed the third run of the inning to score. In the second game, the Jaguars plated three runs in the sixth and held off a two-run Saints rally in the seventh to escape with a win.
In the Peach Belt tournament, the Jaguars struck first on Kristen Jones' RBI single in the top of the first. Bessent quickly tied the game up with a lead off home run and Lisa added an RBI single later in the inning. Personius added a two-run double in the second. Augusta State got revenge in an elimination game. Heather Hughes kept Flagler at bay tossing a complete game three-hitter. She induced 11 fly outs and seven ground outs, and Personius was the only Flagler batter to solve her. Personius went 3-for-3 with a double and a home run.
Lisa holds the best batting average against Augusta State. She is hitting .714 (5-7) with a home run and four runs batted in. She has a 1.143 slugging percentage and a .750 on-base percentage. Personius is batting .500 (6-12) with four runs scored, a double, two home runs and four RBI. She has a 1.083 slugging percentage and a .538 on-base percentage.
Kalyn Loverich (St. Johns, Fla., Bartram Trail HS) has a 1-1 record in the circle vs. the Jaguars. She has made three appearances with one start, a complete game and has a 0.60 earned run average. In 11.2 innings, she has struck out 13 Jaguars and allowed just four hits. Riddick recorded the other win by the Saints. She is 1-0 against Augusta State and has made two appearances, both starts.
Augusta State (34-18) is the No. 5 seed in the regional. The Jaguars have won four-out-of-their-last-five games. Their last loss came to North Georgia College & State University in the conference tournament championship game (Apr. 17).
The Jaguars are led by first-team all-conference selections Kristen Jones and Jessica Thornton. Jones is batting .362 with 12 doubles, seven home runs and 46 RBI. She has stolen 13 bases this season. Thornton is the team's leading hitter with a .409 average. She leads the team in hits (67), home runs (12), runs scored (43) and slugging percentage (.707). Kaycee Camp and Destiny Echols were selected to the all-conference second-team. Camp is batting .372 and leads the club in stolen bases with 24. Echols is hitting at a .308 clip. Augusta State uses two pitchers – Emily Headrick and Heather Hughes. Headrick is 16-6 this season with a 2.26 ERA. She leads the staff with 95 strikeouts and has tossed 152.2 innings. Hughes is 13-8 with a 2.41 ERA.
Against Flagler, Jones leads the Jaguars with a .444 batting average. Camp is batting .300. Augusta State collected 15 hits, but only three went for extra bases. Kaycey Sims has two doubles. Headrick fared the best in the circle for the Jaguars. She went 1-0 in four appearances with two starts. Headrick has a 1.14 ERA in 12.1 innings. Hughes went 1-1 with a 4.20 ERA. In three appearances, she tossed 11.2 innings.
The other game in the bracket pits No. 1-seed North Georgia, the Peach Belt Conference champion, against No. 8 Erskine College, the Conference Carolinas champion. They play at 7 p.m. on Friday. Flagler lost all three games vs. North Georgia this year and won both games at Erskine in March.
The winners of the two games will advance to meet at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. The losers will play an elimination game on Saturday at 4 p.m.
The winner of this regional will meet the winner of the other Southeast Regional, at Hickory, N.C., hosted by South Atlantic Conference champion Lenoir-Rhyne University. The two winners will play a best-of-three with the winner advancing the national championships at Salem, Va., May 26-30.
Click here to view the Dahlonega Regional Web site.
