The 2026 Georgia high school softball season officially began on August 1 and will culminate with the playoffs running from October 28-31 at the South Commons Softball Complex in Columbus, Ga.

Line Drive Media contributor Steve Hickey tracks the prep fastpitch journey in the Peach State for the seven public divisions (1A through 7A) and the one private division.

This is Week 3 of what will be a baker’s dozen of articles throughout the season to provide highlights and spotlights for journey in Georgia to crown its champions.

• Click HERE for Week 1’s report
• Click HERE for Week 2’s report
• Click HERE for Week 3’s report

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The Eyes of a State–& the Nation—Are Upon You

The fourth week of Peach State softball delivered some high-powered matchups and was the last full week of undistracted prep ball before the phones started to ring yesterday afternoon (September 1)… the start of the live recruiting period for high school juniors.    

Per the D3 Direct count, there are over 344,952 high school softball players who are potential recruits. 

These contacts from college coaches represent the beginning of a process of becoming one of the 21,646 collegiate players which is 6.3 percent. 

It’s not an accident; it is far more complex than buying a car and more valuable.  Such as: What brand?  How does it actually test drive?  What is the lasting customer satisfaction? 

September 1 is an important step in the recruiting process, but the most important one is the first.  Every program recruits differently and the changes impacting collegiate sports have them running for the hills.   

Collegiate football produced Nick Saban and his process for success.

Even that process, in the two-plus years since he retired, has begun to fray and you see programs beginning to re-write their own rules. 

There is no such figure like Saban in college softball, even despite the massive success of Patrick Murphy at Alabama and Patty Gasso at Oklahoma.

There’s not this tree of coaches that have branched out and created a consistent recruiting Echo system so every program and every coach goes about it differently. 

Saban then created a massive coaching tree of like-minded coaches that pursued the same strategies so, in that sport, a far more established methodology was created surrounding the recruiting process.

Georgia is a critical state for prep play across the country, feeding travel ball teams, and supplying talent into the collegiate ranks. 

Currently, there are eight Georgia players in the USA softball program, the High Performance Program which is the national academy for international play and Olympic qualifying.   

They are: Shayla Bahr, Aubrey Moore, Caroline Stanton, Katie Wrigley, Nola Tylke, Haylee Whittemore, Isla Schweers, and Mariah Walker. 

There is a deep sigh of relief that Shayla Bahr and Caroline Stanton have graduated and taking their seven state championships with them in the minivan as they move on to play at Florida. 

For the remainder of those HPPs, we will check in on several of these players in the next few weeks. 

The point of all this is that Georgia prep players have a lot going on right now. 

Players: keep smiling and breathing, this party is just for you! Keep having fun and keep the first things first.  God bless you and good luck…  

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Now, let’s look at this week’s results across the Peach State…

Class 7A 

*** Buford High continues to shine with two more quality wins against contenders North Forsyth and Dacula. 

The Wolves’ win against the North Forsyth Raiders revealed some adversity and resilience, as they had to rally from five runs down to get the win. 

Led by 2027 Mississippi State commit Brooklyn Atha, the Wolves are building off last season’s perfect season and are making a statewide announcement that the Road to Columbus still runs through the city limits on Lake Lanier. 

The team still has several formidable matchups through the remainder of the season against Houston, Dacula (again), Creekview, and Harris County… but lift your eyes up and you can see another undefeated season coming into focus. 

*** Harrison put down Campbell, Denmark, and Lassiter to advance to an 8-1 record. 

Harrison fell out of the 1^st round of the playoffs last year to Walton and looks to build on those lessons to push to Columbus this year. 

This year’s team has a dynamic offense led by 2027 Kansas commit Nola Tylke and has been hammering teams this fall. 

For readers, Tylke’s journey through recruiting can be illustrative of the resilience and persistence of playing at the next level.  In this wild, and far too often, rough and tumble world of college athletics, there truly is no beginning or ending to the pursuit. 

She originally committed to Missouri but changed over this summer to Kansas and congrats to her for making it happen.   

Back to the team, this new Jayhawk is hoping that the pitching can hold up for the Hoyas to turn the corner and get to South Commons. 

*** Brookwood has extended its season to date record to 9-1 with their only loss to Archer. 

Brookwood has not played any elite teams yet, but they will face Lassiter, North Gwinnett (three times!) and Walton to finish the season.    

*** Cherokee is one of the old guard powers that considers a visit to South Commons part of its birthright. 

The Warriors have gotten off to an 11-2 start this season with some very tough wins against North Forsyth, Pope, Creekview, and West Forsyth. 

Led by talented 2030 RHP Tyler Orebaugh, the Warriors will follow this young pitcher into the deep 7A classification.  She is a flamethrower who racked 10 strikeouts over Creekview and racked another 14 strikeouts in their 1-0 defeat against Walton. 

Their only two losses were against a proven Walton team and North Paulding. 

We will continue to watch the Warriors as they dust off the old maps to find their way back to Columbus. 

*** Richmond Hill improved to 6-2 for the season.  The Wildcats have quality wins against Wayne County, Long County, and South Effingham. 

They were a Columbus qualifier last season and went 1-2, losing to East Coweta and North Cobb. 

Coach Chris Jenkins has returned for his fourth year at Richmond Hill, and his squad looks like it used that experience last year to return to South Commons.  

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Class 6A 

*** Two-time defending state champion Creekview has a target on its back and has started 11-1 against a thick schedule. 

Its lone loss was against Cherokee 2-1, but does have solid dubs against West Forsyth and Eastside. 

The Grizzlies had a good week notching wins against Sequoyah, Lassiter, and Wesleyan.  Creekview has a huge game this week against Pope which we’ll be following.

***  Loganville continues to impress with a gaudy 10-1 record and its only loss being against Dacula. 

It picked up another three wins this week against Morgan County, North Gwinnett, and Walnut Grove.   

*** Pope High is are another proud program that holds a 2019 and a 2022 state champion banner over its fields. 

The Greyhounds have a 10-3 record with its only losses to Cherokee, Harrison, and Kell.

It has rematches on the horizon against Kell and Cherokee as region foes, a looming showdown against Creekview and Walton is lurking down the road. 

Ella Frances Norton, a 2029 two-way player, is having a surprising start to the young season as she levels up.  

A power hitter at the plate, sophomore has control of the game from the circle. 

Lighten up Frances… it is hard to tell if this young squad has what it takes to get back to Columbus.  We will find out this week against Creekview. 

[Editor’s note: to get the famous movie quote from above, you’ll have to have seen the classic comedy Stripes… but if you haven’t, here’s a quick clip of that famous quote…]

*** Dacula improved to 21-3 for the season coming off a 2-1 week, with wins against Mill Creek and North Hall, and dropping to Buford 6-14.   

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Class 5A

*** Wayne County is off to a 10-2 record for the season and leads this classification with a PSR of .70 with quality wins against Richmond Hill, East Coweta, and Coffee. 

It had previous losses to South Effingham and Appling but rebounded with great week going 2-0 against Metter and Ware County.   

*** North Oconee is 11-0 and is looking towards making a trip to Columbus. 

It has a timid schedule and there have not been any real doozies to overcome. 

It appears that they will steamroll their schedule, but will they have the necessary metal when the fire of post season heats up?  

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Class 4A 

*** Heritage is off a 9-0 start, going 3-0 this week with wins against Adairsville, Ringgold, and Northwest Whifield. 

*** Cherokee Bluff started 9-4 for the season, and went 3-1 last week, with wins against East Jackson, Flowery Branch, and Mill Creek. 

It did lose its contest to Monroe Area 6-1.   

*** Pickens has kicked off the season with a 8-2 start that includes losses to Lumpkin County and West Forsyth.   

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Class 3A 

*** Appling County is now boat-racing this classification with an 8-0 start that includes nice wins against Emanuel County Institute, Effingham, and Wayne County.

Located inland in Southeast Georgia near Savannah and Brunswick, the team’s schedule is hard to beef up with the Western ridge teams of Georgia or the Metro Atlanta. 

*** Pike County is 6-1 and dropped a key contest this week against Northgate 8-2. It does have wins against Harris County and Union Grove. 

*** Defending state champ, Sonoraville is 8-0 with victories over Gordon Lee and Bremen. 

Senior Lakelin Hall is driving the bus to Columbus, saving the best for last. 

Based on my last check, college coaches, this one remains uncommitted so someone is playing to prove everyone something. 

I have heard about sleeping on players, but not on state champs like her.  

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Class 2A 

*** Berrien is now 8-2 and leads the state classification with a .67 PSR.  The team has impressive wins over Jeff Davis and Bacon County.   

*** Banks County has moved to 12-2 for the season, finishing last week 5-0 with a great win against Providence Christian (7-3). 

*** Armuchee has moved to 12-1 as it too had a 5-0 week with wins over Heard County and Mt Zion from Carroll. 

*** Dade County from the far northwestern corner of Georgia went 1-1 this week to improve its season total to 11-1. 

The team faced Gordon Lee and handled them impressively 13-5.   

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Class 1A 

*** Lanier County was supplanted at the top of the PSR by Irwin County as it went 2-1 for the week losing to Lowndes County 7-5. 

Irwin has the same 5-1 record as Lanier and even dropped a head-to-head tiebreak to Lanier; however, its strength of schedule has rewarded them the No. 1 spot with wins over Coffee and Bleckley Counties. 

It’ll be a fun back and forth to watch unfold this fall as I sip my Pumpkin Latte.

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Private 

*** It’s the usual suspects crowding the top of the PSR as Hebron and Prince Avenue are poised for great seasons. 

*** Some new faces are showing up after good starts, Trinity Christian, North Cobb Christian, and Pace are relative newcomers to the top of the standings. 

Welcome aboard. 

*** It appears that Wesleyan has regained its footing after an unfamiliar poor start. 

However, Wesleyan has a brutal schedule this season, so it’s either up or out. 

The question is: how fast can Coach Savannah Peppers bring that team along this fall?  

*** After starting the season with a pop, Pace Academy took two steps backwards this past week, dropping three games this week as its twin Wrigley stars were absent camping. 

The remaining schedule is not very challenging, so we expect to see this team regain its footing and begin elevating its stature in this classification. 

*** Finally, Mt Vernon won the first of the two “Battles of the Mounts” versus Mt Paran. 

A rematch at Mount Paran looms this week.  Can the Mustangs back it up for their first ever regular season sweep? 

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Wrap-Up 

So that is week 4.

Next week we will interview the powers at be— Merri Sherman, the Executive Director of Softball from the GHSA.

She is now in Year 2 after replacing Ernie Yarbrough, the long-term steward who shaped the sport for the past 20 years. 

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So how many miles is it to Columbus from your school? 

If you know it, feel free to drop me a line and give me the insider’s look at your team and the journey ahead this season.   

You can reach me at hickeysd1@yahoo.com and I will be happy to include an update and also perhaps do a player or coach profile.   

— Steve Hickey/Line Drive Contributor