Albany Herald

Photo by Danny Aller

CORDELE -- Crisp County's Lady Cougars (16-9-1) will be at home today at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to open a second-round series against Perry (19-14-1) in the Class AAA state playoffs.

Crisp, the No. 2 team in Region 1-AAA, is making its first trip to the second round of the tournament, and the Lady Cougars arrived in style, ending their first-round series with a triple play to beat Washington County, 8-7, in extra innings.

Washington County had runners at second and third with no outs in the bottom of the eighth when pitcher Hallye Hobbs grabbed a come-backer and fired home to get the runner coming in from third. Catcher Shelby Simmons threw to third baseman Anna Posey, who tagged out the runner coming in from second, and then made a heads-up play to throw to second baseman Jensen Holt, who tagged out the batter who was trying to reach second on the play.

"I've never seen anything like it. It was something else,'' Crisp County coach Kevin Blampied said. "Everybody was going crazy.''

Posey, the second cousin of Lee County native and current major-league rookie star Buster Posey in San Francisco, currently leads the team with a .360 average.

"I know we're related because he always shows up at family reunions," Anna Posey joked after Crisp's region finals loss to Worth two weeks ago.

Crisp played a tough schedule, losing three times to Worth and twice to Class AAAA power Lee County. All nine losses were to playoff teams, and Blampied feels the schedule helped his kids in the long run.

He has had big years from a scrappy bunch that includes Posey, who leads the team in hitting, leadoff hitter Sydne Mitchell (.340) an infield that has made one big play after another, and outfielders Taylor Perry, Deanna Brubaker and Cassidy Jolly, who also pitches.

"This is the first time we've been in the second round so we're all pretty excited,'' Blampied said. "And that triple play was pretty memorable.''