Flowery Branch Takes First Two Games, Knocks off Decatur to Advance to 2nd Round of Playoffs

On Wednesday, the Lady Falcons of Flowery Branch traveled to Decatur High School to face the Lady Bulldogs in the opening round of the Class 5A State Playoffs. The Lady Falcons jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the first inning. It was at the top of the first when Flowery Branch's Alexis Nixon came to the plate with bases loaded and connected for a two run RBI single before the Lady Bulldogs were able to close out the side and getting on the scoreboard with a run of their own as the inning ending with the Lady Falcons up by 2. In the top of the fourth, Flowery Branch opened up their lead as Nixon once again connected, this time on a triple with bases loaded. The Lady Falcons added one more run in the inning before being retired up 7-1.

Decatur was held scoreless in the bottom of the second but returned the favor in the top of the third when the Lady Bulldogs' Katie Cassidy looked to have settled down on the mound keeping the Lady Falcons off the board in the inning. Decatur's bats looked to be warming up in the bottom of the third when the Lady Bulldogs added four runs including a solo shot by Jr. catcher Audrey Wheeler and a 3-run yard ball by So. Dylan Andrews as the Lady Bulldogs found themselves back in it only down 7-5 as the third inning came to an end. At the top of the fourth, the Lady Falcons wasted no time getting their bats back on track as they added four more runs in the inning including two RBI doubles and two RBI singles, while the Decatur was only able to muster up one run in the inning.

The Lady Falcons opened up the fifth inning with a solo home run by Jr. Callie Alexzulian making it 12-6 game. The Lady Falcons went on to add four more runs in the sixth as they cruised to a 16-6 victory in the first game of the best-of-three opening round series. Game two between the Lady Falcons and Lady Bulldogs showed that Flowery Branch was too much at the plate for Decatur as the Lady Falcons went on to win game two by a score of 11-3 as they sweep the Lady Bulldogs in the opening round of the Class 5A State Playoffs. Flowery Branch will next face the winner of the Ware County/Locust Grove series.