It has been

38 years since Fayette County High School brought a state championship

trophy home to their hallways. In 1964 the school's varsity baseball team

won the state title. Now the 2002 Lady Tigers varsity softball team are

state champs.

Their title

run began on July 29, their first day of practice.

"This

was the team's goal from the very beginning this season," said Coach

Jill Joiner. "They were focused from day one."

The Lady Tigers

stormed through the regular season with a record of ---. They won the

Region 4-AAAAA tournament with two extra inning wins over Starr's Mill

High School and then got wins over Lee County, Henry County and Stockbridge

to advance to the next round of the state tournament.

Fayette County

opened the final stretch of the playoffs against Sequoyah and won 1-0.

Ashley Holcombe drove in the winning run and pitcher Bonnie Bynum threw

a no hitter, striking out nine batters and walking one. In their next

game, the Lady Tigers faced Lassiter, a team they had tied at a tournament

earlier in the season. Fayette County won the game 3-0 thanks to RBIs

from Pamela O'Neal, Allison Horne and Paige Phillips. Bynum threw a one

hitter in the game and struck out 14 batters. In the fifth inning of the

game, Bynum struck out the 1,000th batter of her high school career.

In the third

game, Fayette County defeated Oconee County 3-0. The game was tight as

the Lady Tigers didn't score until the sixth inning with two outs. O'Neal

drove in the first run and two more runs scored on errors. Bynum got the

win once again, giving up three hits and striking out nine. Fayette County

then lost to Lowndes 1-0, forcing the "if" game.

In the final

game of the season, the Lady Tigers would not be denied. Stephanie Phillips,

the team's other pitcher, who missed the second round of the tournament

due to surgery on Thursday, arrived and saw her teammates score four runs

in the first inning on their way to a 7-2 victory. Holcombe hit a two

run homerun and Stefanie Norman and O'Neal drove in a run a piece to give

Fayette County a comfortable cushion. Later, Horne would hit a homerun

and the Lady Tigers would score another run on a passed ball. Lowndes

scored two runs late in the game and had eight hits, which was the most

hits and runs allowed by Fayette County all season, but it was not enough.

"This

title was won based on a combination of talented players and drive,"

said Joiner, who had brought the team to the brink twice before. The Lady

Tigers placed fifth last year and third in 1999. Now they are state champions

and one of the most dominant teams in recent memory. They finished the

season with a record of 36-2-1. Thirty of their 36 wins were shutouts

and the team outscored their opponents 233-9.

Horne finished

the season with a batting average of .430. She scored 42 runs, drove in

36, hit five homeruns and had 32 singles, nine doubles and three triples.

The Lady Tigers had four other batters hit over .300 for the season including

Paige Phillips who hit .374 with 19 RBI and 35 singles and Holcombe who

hit .324 with 31 RBI and two homeruns. As for pitching, Bynum finished

with a record of 31-2, an ERA of 0.17, 334 strikeouts and 57 hits, while

Stephanie Phillips went 5-0 with a 0.45 ERA and 26 strikeouts and seven

hits.

In addition,

two of their players have committed to playing ball in college next year.

Bynum has committed to Tennessee Tech and Horne has committed to the University

of Oklahoma.

Congratulations

to the Fayette County Lady Tigers for an outstanding 2002 season.

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