Lady Leopards lead up to final game with three wins

A little bit of luck helped the Banks County Lady Leopards out last week as the girls took a 4-3 win over East Jackson on Thursday. But it’s not all luck as the Lady Leopards also added a 12-0 sweep over Rabun and a 9-0 sweep over Oglethorpe this week.

Banks County has one last region game on the schedule before the region tournament.

Coming up this Thursday, the Lady Leopards will finish out the regular season on the road at Walnut Grove facing the Walnut Grove Lady Warriors. This will be the first meeting between the schools and the Lady Warriors don’t appear to be any sort of pushovers.

Walnut Grove is 5-2 in region play and 13-8-1 overall. The Lady Warriors keep the allowed runs low, only averaging 2.3 runs for opponents while running in an average 5.3 per game.

Banks County sits on a 6-2 region record and an overall 17-7 record. The Lady Leopards have also done a good job this season of not allowing opponents to score, giving up an average 1.2 runs per game while bringing home 5.1 per game.

The most single runs Banks has allowed in one game (5 runs) was against Dawson County during the Lanier Point Tourney in August.

Since that game, only two other teams have managed to score more than two runs off the Lady Leopards.

Walnut Grove’s worst game was against AAAA Harris County in which the Lady Warriors lost 9-3.

Coach Dean Goodwin said that the Lady Leopards cannot slack off.

“We have to learn to win from the first pitch,” Goodwin said. “We cannot take any team in our region lightly.”

Currently Banks is holding the number two spot in the region behind North Oconee, and Walnut Grove is sitting in the third seat.

Game time on Thursday is 5 p.m. in Walnut Grove.

For more on this story, see this week's The Banks County News.