New coaches and defending champs: A preview of Macon’s high school softball teams for 2025

While football season is getting closer, high school softball season is getting started right at the same time. Macon boasts plenty of teams with high potential on the diamond, including a defending champ, a dynastic program with a new coach and many more.

Here’s a look at some high school softball teams to watch for in Bibb County.

Tattnall and other GIAA programs

The Trojans have been one of the strongest teams in Macon for several years under head coach Jordan Brooks. Tattnall put it all together last season, winning the GIAA Class 4A State Championship in Columbus over George
Walton.

The Trojans lost only one region game all year in a historic 29-5 campaign. They went undefeated in the state tournament in truly dominant fashion.

Some of the heroes from that run have now graduated. Star shortstop Gradie Appling, who came up with a clutch home run in the title game against the Bulldogs last season, is now at Louisiana State. Two other key contributors, Anna Mary Talcott and Molly Kemp, were seniors last season.

Those players were crucial in Brooks’ model, in which he depends on older players to double as team leaders in addition to making plays on the field.

The Trojans will have talent returning as well, though. 

The Still sisters, Anna and Callie, are both seniors. The junior class might be even more impressive, with returners Carsyn Atwater, Reese Covington and Aibigayle Baugh all set to factor into Tattnall’s attempt at a repeat. Covington hit the grand slam that made the difference in last season’s championship matchup.

Young talent could be a factor as well. The Trojans have two eighth-graders and three freshmen on the team.

The Trojans started the season off with a dominant 21-0 win over Bulloch Academy before their second game was rained out Monday.

Another GIAA team in Macon is already off to a ripping-hot start despite the rain, as the FPD Vikings began their season 6-0 at the tail end of July and beginning of August.

The Vikes got started with a 4-2 win over Fullington Academy on July 25 and have not looked back, winning every game to start the year off strong. 

In FPD’s most recent victory, junior Gracyn Fuller pitched four hitless innings and struck out ten batters against Bethlehem Christian while also notching two hits and five RBIs at the plate in a ringing 11-3 Vikings win.

Fuller is one of a handful of returning players for FPD that will try and piece together a solid follow-up to last year’s impressive 20-9 campaign. The Vikings gave eventual state champ Tattnall its only region loss all year, a 14-11 win for FPD, and made the playoffs with a 7-4 record in GIAA’s Class 4A/3A District 6.

Several seniors moved on after last season, including star hitter Hannah Davis, but the Vikings also have a lot of room to grow. Aside from senior Ava Spillers, lots of FPD’s key contributors like Fuller and Lyric Jones will be juniors this season, setting the table for some teambuilding across the next two seasons.

The Stratford Eagles will have a unique situation on their hands this year in GIAA play.

The Eagles finished 16-14 last season with a 6-4 region record, but their playoff run was the most notable part of the year. After George Walton defeated Stratford 10-1 in its first game of the 4A tourney, the Eagles roared through the loser’s bracket as the No. 7 seed with explosive offense.

Stratford scored 16, 13 and 15 runs in the next three games respectively to defeat Bulloch, FPD and Strong Rock Christian to reach the final game of the bracket, just one win shy of the championship tilt. While George Walton defeated them again to finish off Stratford’s season — this time it was a much-closer 10-7 result that saw the Eagles push the Bulldogs to the brink — the run was an impressive one.

But that momentum may prove hard to sustain, as Stratford had a whopping eight seniors on that roster out of 13 total players, according to its MaxPreps page. 

Now the Eagles have three seniors — Hayden Craddock, Reagan Ray and Taylor Ray — returning to lead the way with nine freshmen listed on the current roster.

Mount de Sales finished winless last softball season but will be in the same region with Tattnall, FPD and Stratford.

ACE and other GHSA teams

On the GHSA side, the ACE Gryphons — arguably Macon’s best public school program across recent years — had a significant change in the offseason when head coach Josh McLendon left to become the head softball coach at region foe Dublin.

McLendon led the team to a state championship in 2021 and playoff appearances in every season since he arrived at ACE in 2017, building the Gryphons into a bonafide
powerhouse on the softball field.

ACE stayed internal to fill McLendon’s spot, naming Andrew Claxton as its new softball coach back in April. Claxton, a Wrightsville native, has been at ACE for two years.

As far as the team’s makeup, the Gryphons went 27-8 overall and 17-1 in Region 2 of GHSA Class A-Division I last season, narrowly losing a tiebreaker to East Laurens to win the region. ACE won its playoff matchups against Dublin and Jeff Davis to advance to the Sweet 16 before losses to Toombs County and Haralson County ended the Gryphons’ postseason run.

Several key players will return to try and continue ACE’s success. Seniors Sophie Denney and Reese Thames will be key sluggers along with contact hitter Avery Stone, while Ella Allen and Avery Edalgo will be important in the circle.

Crucial players like the Yates twins — Karlee and Karsyn were also key players on the girl’s basketball team when it won its first playoff game — as well as Madisyn Hallar and Laney Bridges graduated. Last season’s seniors were freshmen when the Gryphons won their state title.

The rest of the Bibb County teams in Region 2 — Central, Northeast and Southwest — did not fare as well against the region’s stacked schedule last season, though there could be some growth. The Chargers finished 11-12 with a very young roster. Northeast finished 7-15 while Southwest forfeited several games to finish 1-18.

At the upper classifications, Rutland went 7-20 overall and 4-11 in Region 2-2A, though they did notch wins over region rivals including Jackson and Westside. The Seminoles struggled both overall and in region play, finishing 2-20 and 0-15 respectively.

The Howard Huskies were the most successful Bibb County School District team, as head coach Danny Slaughter helped the Huskies recover from a 2-9 start to finish 13-16 overall with an impressive 9-4
region record. 

Abby Hardy and Abby Davis were two skilled hitters for the Huskies last year but have since graduated. Anna Nash should be a key returning pitcher, batter and senior leader for Howard as the Huskies once again try to tackle a difficult schedule, which features lots of travel to several Augusta teams and multiple games against talented programs like West Laurens.