The high school softball season has begun and Starr's Mill, last

year's AAAAA state runner-up, opened with a win. The Lady Panthers

hosted the Fayette County Lady Tigers and won the hotly contested match,

5-4.

Starr's Mill had taken a 5-1 lead by the end of the fifth inning,

but Fayette County added two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh.

Jackie Jones took the mound for Starr's Mill, going four and two-thirds

innings, giving up one hit and walking two. She also scored two of the

Lady Panthers five runs. Rebecca Aszman, Lindsey Walker and Lynsey Tedford

each drove in a run.

Starr's Mill head coach Mark Williamson feels that his team will

be competitive both in the region and Class AAAAA this year, despite

graduating six players from last year's state runner-up team. Handling

the pitching for Starr's Mill this year, along with Jones, will

be Amanda Howett and Lindsey Glidden. Williamson feels that pitching

will be one of the keys toanother successful season and hopes that the

defense can play solidly and not committ to many errors. He also cited

Aszman, Walker and Tedford as players to watch this year.

Starr's Mill is playing in the Kell tournament this weekend and

will meet Kell, the team that won the championship last year, tonight.

The key region competition should come from the Lady Tigers as well as

Union grove and East Coweta. Starr's Mill will play at Union Grove

Tuesday night at 6 p.m.