Sports

Friendly fire

• Brittny Dennison and Callie Thompson are more than just close friends, they also are the pulse of a Lee County team eyeing its first Elite Eight berth in history.

Paul Dehner Jr.

LEESBURG — On the field, junior Brittny Dennison and senior Callie Thompson form the potent 1-2 pitching punch that lifted the Lee County High School softball team to a perfect 9-0 Region 1-AAAA season.

Off the field, the two are the best of friends. Their mothers and brothers are close, they lay by the pool together and they have formed a palpable bond since first meeting nearly 10 years ago.

It is this friendship the Lady Trojans will ride as they carry their No. 1 seed to Hampton this week in an attempt to qualify for the program’s first Elite Eight berth at the Class AAAA South sectional.

That’s reassuring for coach Lynn Avery and her youthful upstarts who play Wayne County on Friday at 4 p.m. What makes this dynamic duo so special is that without the relationship off the field – which developed during drives to Tifton where they studied the art of pitching under the same coach –.the production on it may never have come to its current dominant level.

“I would catch her while she pitched,” Dennison said. “She’d catch me and we’d hear what the coach was telling you to work on, it was a lot easier. If I am on the pitching mound she can pretty much tell me because she can see what I am doing wrong. We help each other out that way because we know what each other’s weaknesses are.”

For Dennison, the Region 1-AAAA Pitcher of the Year as a sophomore, and Thompson, a senior who Avery calls her “most improved player,” the weaknesses are becoming harder to distinguish.

In fact, despite Dennison owning a slight height advantage and darker hair, the two are just as hard to distinguish on the mound.

After Dennison threw a no-hitter this year, Thompson followed with one of her own. Dennison again retaliated with a perfect game against Thomas County Central. Not to be outdone, Thompson achieved perfection against Bainbridge.

They have spent hours working together and developed a style that is nearly as identical as it is dominating.

“There is not much difference in speed. They don’t throw good strikes, if that makes any sense,” Avery said. “We are not going to put one out down the middle unless we have to have that strike. They hit their spots. They both throw fastball, screwball, curves and their changeups are nasty.”

Dennison and Thompson haven’t been without fault this season. Avery has seen both of them knocked around at times. But the beauty of the combination, much like the friendship, is their ability to pick each other up when the going gets rough.

“It would make some people more nervous knowing you have another pitcher,” Thompson said, of pitching alongside Dennison, “but it actually makes me feel better about myself because I know if I’m not pitching good and we start getting down she can bring us back up.”

These two don’t need to come on in relief to bring the team back up, though. Sometimes, it’s as easy as offering some advice. Having studied under the same coach, they have essentially become each other’s coach.

“If we are struggling we will whisper to each other, ‘stay back’ or ‘snap it off,’” Dennison said. “We did the exact same drills and did the stuff in the exact same order. A lot of times it’s hard to feel what you are doing wrong and it’s a lot easier to see it. I can’t feel it and I know I’m doing something, but it is a lot easier for her to see.”

The advice and performance will be needed entering the double-elimination sectional this weekend. Pitching will be the name of the game in helping Lee County ascend over the hump which saw their seasons cut one game short of the Elite Eight the past two years.

Avery, whose run Lee County softball since it moved to fast-pitch in 2001, knows that better than anybody.

“The game has changed some, the girls are hitting the ball, but you still have to have a good pitcher,” she said. “If you don’t have a pitcher who is consistent, you got to have somebody who could throw strikes.”

And they have done more than that. Now, for the girls who have seemingly done everything together, only one task remains. Both admit this weekend’s tournament has become a focus of the current conversation.

Regardless of the outcome of this weekend’s tournament, know these two friends will be soaking up every moment of these final games together.

Even with sophomore Savannah Matthews prime to fill in once Thompson graduates, Dennison knows it will never be quite like this again.

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