Pope Softball Must Win to Extend Year

is the last East Cobb Patch school standing in the Georgia High School Association softball tournaments, and the Lady Greyhounds face a must-win road game at 2 p.m. today.

Pope plays at Northwest Whitfield in the final game of their best-of-three second-round AAAA series.

The Lady Greyhounds won the first game on the road Thursday, 4-3, but lost the second, 9-1, the Dalton Daily Citizen reported.

The winner today gets a berth in the eight-team, double-elimination championship tournament in Columbus, starting Thursday against Ola. The loser is done for the season.

Also advancing to Columbus in AAAA are Union Grove, Madison County, Northgate, , Whitewater and .

Madison County earned its place in the Elite Eight by sweeping Northeast Cobb’s on Thursday, 8-5 and 10-2, the Athens Banner-Herald said.

Another Northeast Cobb team, , faces a Game 3 at home today at 2 p.m. in the second round of the AAAAA tournament. The Lady Trojans must beat to advance to Columbus along with , , , , , and East Coweta.

The GHSA volleyball tournaments also are down to the quarterfinals, set for Saturday, and the top seeds in AAAAA and AAAA are the defending state champions from East Cobb, and Pope.

In AAAAA, Walton plays host to eighth-seeded East Coweta at 3 p.m. The winner plays Wednesday at in Lilburn against either Lassiter or . Those teams play at Roswell at 7 p.m. Saturday.

On the other half of the bracket, hosts Brookwood at 12:30 p.m., and North Cobb is home against at 6 p.m.

In the AAAA tournament, Pope plays at home against Rockdale at 10:30 a.m. for a spot in the semifinals against or McIntosh on Wednesday at Mount Zion High in Jonesboro.

Also in AAAA, is home against Starrs Mill, and Whitewater plays host to Lakeside-DeKalb.

East Cobb Patch invites the community to be part of our community sports coverage. If you have photos or videos from today's softball or Saturday's volleyball games, share them by clicking on "Add your photos & videos." If you want to tell everyone about the games, use the comment box below, or email GaPatchSports@gmail.com.

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