Woodland secures home region playoff berth with win at Cass

Woodland softball secured home field advantage for the opening round of the Region 7-AAAAA playoffs with an 11-3, six-inning victory at Cass Wednesday night.

The Lady Cats scored nine runs over the first four innings and Woodland pitcher Sarah Baynard limited Cass to only four hits and a pair of earned runs in the game. Baynard walked three and struck out four.

Bella Carnes and Ansley Evans both had three hits and two RBIs each for Woodland. Skylar Chappell (RBI), Morgan Cooper (RBI), Morgan Bailey (RBI), and Brittany Cox had two hits each. Audrey Morris added one hit and one RBI.

Alexia Najarro had two hits for Cass. Sarah Fox (double, RBI) and Sarah Moore (RBI) had the other Lady Colonels’ hits.

Taylor Gibson (4.1 IP, 9R, 6ER, 11H, 4BB, 2K) was the starting pitching and was tagged with the loss for Cass. Haley Owens (1.2 IP, 2ER, 4H, 0BB, 1K) also pitched for the Lady Colonels.

Cass finished the season 5-21 overall and 1-13 in region play. The Lady Colonels did not qualify for the region playoffs.

Woodland (10-13, 6-8) will open the Region 7-AAAAA playoffs Thursday at home against East Paulding with a doubleheader in a best-of-three series. The first game will begin at 5 p.m.

The Lady Cats and East Paulding finished the region slate with six wins each. Based on region tie-breakers, Woodland will be the fourth seed in the region playoffs and East Paulding is the fifth seed.

The series winner will advance to the region semifinals and will lock up a berth in the Class AAAAA state playoffs.