Sports

Terrell Academy star Lindsey anchors team’s GISA title hopes

• All-State Terrell Academy catcher Lauren Lindsey and the Lady Eagles are two wins from a state title.

Jared Field

DAWSON — The most poignant symbols can often be equally prosaic.

For members of the Final Four-bound Terrell Academy softball team, they need only look to the neoprene black brace supporting the right knee of their senior All-State catcher, Lauren Lindsey.

It’s a profound, seemingly quirky, place from which to draw inspiration.

Until you hear the story.

“(Lauren) tore her ACL in the middle of the (2005) season,” said Keith Jones, the Eagles’ longtime coach, during the team’s practice Wednesday. “She had a choice to make: have surgery or finish the season out. Well, she went and got a brace and went through therapy every day and finished the season…”

Just finishing out her sophomore season, however, didn’t quite do it for the resilient backstop with the sweet swing.

“She actually batted a little over .500 in the state tournament and was the leading hitter on our state championship team (in 2005),” said Jones, clearly remembering the story as if it happened yesterday.

Despite her postseason heroics, Lindsey had barely made it out of the batter’s box in her journey toward rehabilitation.

“Last year, she came back out here and was still hobbled; her (rehabilitation) was about 18 months,” Jones added. “Only now is she finally getting her legs back under her.”

Lindsey’s dedication left an indelible mark on her teammates and coaches; she is persistence personified.

“It has been an inspiration to the girls and the coaching staff also,” the coach said. “If a kid will come out here having that bad wheel and just keep working at it and turn out to be the leading hitter on the team…and never complain, heck, nobody else has any reason to complain.”

Playing through pain is just part of the gig, apparently.

“It wasn’t a hard decision,” said Lindsey of her strenuous sophomore season. “I love this sport; this is my sport. I don’t play anything else — it’s what I want to do.”

And her love for the sport that she has played since the age of four is only matched by her love of being a part of her team.

“It was just another thing I had to do,” said Lindsey, who leads the Eagles in nearly every offense category this season highlighted by a stunning .473 batting average. “If I were to let myself down it would let the whole team down, too.”

And if their 19-2 record this season is any indication, there’s no letdown on the horizon for the 2007 Eagles, who are on the cusp of their third GISA A championship in four years. After blowing through the early rounds of region and state, they open up the Final Four semifinals in LaGrange on Saturday against LaGrange at 10 a.m.

With six seniors, including 2006 All-State selections  Haley O’Hearn, Julie Davis and Lindsey, the Eagles should have all the confidence they need to close the deal.

And, speaking of dealing … Sophomoric behavior?

Marvin Flournoy, a southern gentleman in his mid-sixties, knows a thing or two about pitching. After all, his granddaughter is Lindsey, whom he watches behind the plate at Terrell Academy every day to take in whatever sophomore hurler, Amanda Cook, can dish out.

One thing is clear: it’s better to be sitting down than standing up when Cook is on the mound.

“Amanda will make you look like a monkey out there,” said the excitable Flournoy, peering through the protective fencing in the Eagles’ dugout. “(Former Eagles star pitcher) Courtney (Spilman) would overpower you, but (Amanda) has more pitches.”

And that, in a nutshell, is what Cook will have to deal with for the next two years — the legacy of Spilman, the Eagles’ ace pitcher now a freshman at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.

“This is my first year here,” said Cook, a transfer student from Lee County. “They had Courtney last year, and I mean I could never fill her shoes. It’s kind of like she is what I am trying to get up to. It’s hard.”

It appears, however, Cook is doing a better impersonation of Spilman that she gives herself credit for.

She has a 17-1 record with a 2.33 ERA. And proving she’s not a one-trick pony, Cook also is batting .373.

She hasn’t even been a Lady Eagle a full year, but Cook knows what’s expected of  the dynasty that is becoming Terrell Academy softball.

“(Lee County) has a record of winning region, but not state,” she said. “When I came here and they had won two, back-to-back, it was like ‘Wow.’ ”

The feeling was mutual.

“In terms of command, she is as good a pitcher as we’ve had,” Jones said. “She’s not overpowering. She’s not going to come out here and rack up the ‘Ks’ by blowing balls past people. But, she’s got five pitches and she’s able to mix them up enough to keep people off-balance.

“For a sophomore to do that ... it’s pretty impressive.”

Of course, the same could be said about the direction of the entire Terrell Academy program these past few years.

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