Falling one run short in the

final game, the Starr's Mill Lady Panthers capped off a 38-3 season

Completing a fall campaign

that included a 31-game winning streak and only five runs allowed in its

final 22 games, the Lady Panthers rebounded from a second-round loss in

the state championship tournament in Columbus to win four straight, including

a 6-0 victory over Kell in the final round to force a single deciding

game for the state title. With that win, Starr's Mill recorded a

victory over each of the other seven teams in the Elite Eight during the

2003 season.

Kell defeated both Fayette

teams last weekend, winning 2-0 over the Fayette County Lady Tigers in

the first round. The Lady Tigers then fell 2-0 to Parkview to finish their

season with a 28-13 record.

The final coaches poll of the

season, released Monday night, has Starr's Mill ranked second behind

Kell, with Collins Hill third. Next in line are Parkview, Eagle's

Landing, Brookwood, Stockbridge and Fayette County.

Here is a game-by-game breakdown

of the weekend for the Lady Panthers, according to the team's Web

site.

Starr's Mill 2, Parkview

0: Brittany Matthews pitched a no-hitter with seven strikeouts and three

intentional walks. Lindsey Walker hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to

left to score the first run in the third inning. Lynsey Tedford then hit

a solo home run in the sixth.

Kell 1, Starr's Mill 0:

The Lady Panthers stranded eight runners in the game, leaving the bases

loaded in the third. Matthews pitched a three-hitter.

Starr's Mill 2, Eagle's

Landing 0: Starting the long climb from the loser's bracket to the

finals, the Lady Panthers recorded the first of four straight shutouts

with this win. Becca Aszman reached on a bunt in the top of the sixth

and Jennilee Huddleston walked, and after both advanced on a passed ball,

Walker drilled a 2-2 pitch for a hit to score them both. Matthews struck

out five and allowed five hits.

Starr's Mill 2, Parkview

0: Matthews and Rebecca Guertin combined for the two-hit shutout, and

the offense came through in the fifth. Becca Aszman hit a two-out single,

and after Huddleston drew a walk, Tedford launched a shot to left-center

that the Parkview outfielder saved from being a home run, but the two-run

double was enough for the win.

Starr's Mill 6, Collins

Hill 0: The Lady Panthers began play Saturday morning - their first

of three consecutive games - by eliminating another Gwinnett County

team from the tournament. A four-run first inning included a single by

Aszman, a walk to Huddleston, a double by Tedford, a single by Matthews,

Ashley Marine reaching on an error and Sarah Huempfner stroking a single

to make it 4-0. Matthews pitched the first three innings, retiring nine

batters in order, and Guertin scattered three hits the rest of the way,

striking out five. Starr's Mill scored invidivual runs in the third

and fourth.

Starr's Mill 6, Kell 0:

In the first game of the championship round, the Lady Panthers racked

up ten hits and took advantage of five Kell errors to provide plenty of

offense. Guertin pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up four hits and three

walks. Matthews came on in relief with the based loaded and one out, slamming

the door with a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning. She struck

out five in the final 2 2/3 innings.

Kell 1, Starr's Mill 0:

The final game of the season went 9 innings, and Matthews went the distance,

giving up two hits while striking out seven. Kell's pitching was

even more impressive, as the Lady Panthers fanned 13 times.

With the game still scoreless

in the bottom of the eighth, the potential winning run got close when

Matthews' sacrifice bunt advanced Carly Taylor to third, but she

got no farther. Kell opened the ninth by doing the same thing, and their

runner scored from third on a hard groundout. Starr's Mill got another

runner to third in the bottom of the ninth on Ashley Marine's sacrifice

bunt, but Kell closed out the game and took home the state title.

All three of the Lady Panthers'

losses in 2003 were by a single run. They outscored their opponents 156-5

over the final 22 games of the season. All six of the team's seniors

- Guertin, Huddleston, Matthews, Marine, Whitney Randolph and Allison

DePalma - played together as eighth-graders on the 1999 championship

team at Rising Starr Middle School.

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