There are five states—Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia—that play high school softball in the fall and, as part of a 12-week series covering the prep play in the Peach State, contributor and Georgia softball aficionado Steve Hickey is tracking the Road to Columbus: the pathway to the state championships in Columbus, Ga.

Here is Week 8 of the series…

*****

The Buford Wolves (23-0) and the Eastside Lady Eagles (19-0) finished the week as the lone remaining undefeated teams across all GHSA. 

Check out our closer look at these pair of unbeatens…

Buford High – Undefeated & Battle Tested

Buford’s success is not for a lack of competition: Buford Head Coach Trent Adams has scheduled most of the state’s biggest and baddest contenders to come up the hill to test themselves against one of the Peach State’s best longtime powerhouse programs. 

The strength of schedule has included Gordon Lee, Collins Hills, Wesleyan, and Dacula. The NFCA has given them a No. 1 national ranking, a silhouette target for all comers for sure. 

The last full week of September was a busy time for the Buford Wolves. They clinched their Region 8 regular season championship with a run rule 8-0 win over the Mill Creek Hawks.

Then the Wolves went to the home of the North Cobb (17-5) on Saturday for a doubleheader against the Warriors and the Creekview Grizzlies (17-4). 

What started out as proof of concept for these three Columbus contenders became a red notice to all the 6A classification that the Wolves are on mission and not just a Caroline Stanton solo act.  

Caroline did not play in the doubleheader, and there were questions if the Wolves could answer the call of duty without her.  

She has taken a brief leave from the team to join the U.S. National Women’s U-18 Team to pitch in the World Cup for the two-week tournament that started on Saturday.  

Sheesh, and you thought your high school softball coach had problems filling out the lineup card between official visits and the high school musical causing scheduling mayhem!  

The Warriors and Grizzlies smelled blood and were out to capitalize on her absence.

Not so fast my friend.  

The Wolves are loaded and deep and they wasted no time to get on North Cobb early.  They ran away and hid with a 13-1 win.  

2027 Brooklyn Atha, a Mississippi State commit, provided the fireworks with a two-run bomb and that was enough for Addie Rackley, a 2026 LSU commit, who was sterling for two innings with strikeouts while helping her cause with her own two-run home run, to help seal the victory.  

Buford completed the afternoon’s demolition with a 5-1 victory over the Grizzlies as Rackley came back to pitch seven innings, giving up only three hits, surrendering only one earned run and racking (pun expressly intended) up 12 strikeouts. 

Atha and Rackley both smashed home runs to power the offense.  

Game recognizes game, and everyone left the doubleheader scratching their heads, “How are we ever going to beat this team?”

Buford has one final monster challenge next week against 4A contender Eastside Lady Eagles.

*****

Eastside High – The War on Northern Aggression

The Eastside Lady Eagles (19-0) were the runners up from last year’s championship and are on mission this season to put their autograph on last year’s loss to Harris County.  

They are trying to finish what they could not last season and capped their perfect season to date with wins against Morgan County and Walnut Grove.  

This writer plans to head up to Buford next week and submit expense reimbursements, to cover that colossus match-up.

East Coweta recently dropped three of four games, but they have bounced back with a five-game win streak.  

From their perspective, the Road to Columbus still must run through them and, for Buford, it is 145 miles from Buford to Columbus, and it appears that the team has the map and directions to South Commons to put a final stamp on its 2025 season.  

East Coweta is lurking on the horizon, and everyone in the Peach State is looking forward to this exciting final chapter of the Civil War. 

State of Play

As we take our eyes off the 6A designation, and look across the other classifications, there are questions every team must answer at this stage of the season  

• Do we have elite pitching that can carry us through October?
• Do we have enough arms to get from here to there?
• How much pressure is on the manager to pencil in the correct lineups? 
• Are my players peaking or slumping?  
• How can I get a slumpbuster and get the players going at this time of year?  
• Do we have more questions or answers? 

Fansville and Bracketology and Power Ranking

Regional playoffs begin after next week, and their respective formats vary from Region to Region and are already predetermined.

Some regions do not have playoffs as they just settle their final standings based on regular season play. Each region selects its commissioner, and then the commissioner determines the format of play, and they produce their champions. 

• GHSA has already published all of the brackets with 32 teams here.  
• These seedings will be based on Power Rankings listed here.  

Based on these rankings, the brackets will be finalized. These brackets will have best of three series for the 1^st and 2^nd rounds that will then produce a Columbus-bound Elite 8 team.

— Steve Hickey for Line Drive Softball