Twin killing: Storybook home runs by Yates sisters lead ACE softball to playoff win over Jeff Davis

Some home runs mean more. 

There are playoff home runs, yes, even championship-winning ones. There are others, too, long balls of greater consequence for different reasons — some emotional tether links them to the world off the field, making them significant in ways beyond the sport.

Rarely, if ever, do both occur simultaneously.

That’s exactly what happened Thursday night in Macon, though, when twin sisters Karlee and Karsyn Yates each blasted a home run in the same inning of a game to fuel the ACE Gryphons’ playoff win over Jeff Davis and send ACE to the Elite Eight of the GHSA A-Division I tournament in stunning fashion.

The Gryphons had already won the first game in the best-of-three series 5-4 on an extra-innings walk-off. It doesn’t often get more dramatic than that.

But when the twins — who tore their ACLs within the same week earlier this year before their senior softball season even started — hit two home runs in the sixth inning of Game 2, it was clear. Karlee and Karsyn had taken the spotlight.

“I would describe it as unreal. I never thought this could happen,” Karsyn said after the game. “This is my first time back on the field at all since I got hurt, which was crazy. (Karlee) doing it first, and then me coming right behind her, it’s just a dynamic duo type thing. It’s so awesome.”

Until about two weeks before Thursday night’s playoff matchup, head coach Josh McLendon and the rest of the ACE team thought Karsyn would never play on the Gryphons’ home field again. Karlee had returned earlier during the regular season, but Karsyn was further delayed by back surgery.

“It was a storybook ending for (Karsyn) tonight… tonight was the first night she stepped foot on that field,” McLendon said. “Not having seen live pitching in a year, only having three practices under her belt, we didn’t know what to expect. But I know she’s a player, she’s a gamer. Tonight you saw it… I’m so proud for her.”

There was more still to the twins’ home runs, however. That much showed when the speakers at the ACE softball field started blaring Bruno Mars’ hit tune “24K Magic” the inning after their home runs.

As the song rang out over the field, the Yates sisters looked at each other and grinned. The song had been a pregame favorite of Karlee and Karsyn’s father, who died in January.

“That’s his favorite song ever, we just listened to that all the time with him. It’s such a hype happy song and we just love it,” Karsyn said.

“When they played that, I was very excited. People always tell me that our dad would be so proud of us. I know he would and I know he’s watching up there,” Karlee added.

Each time one of the twins came up to bat, the atmosphere at the game seemed to hold some extra tension. When Karlee smacked the first of the two dingers, she took her time rounding the bases and hit the griddy dance as she crossed home plate and the fans went wild.

“I feel like my celebration was much more hype, but we were both excited,” she said. “We joke about griddying all the time. Another senior, our right fielder (Madisyn Hallar) started it, and I had to give her props, I have to griddy on my bomb. So I did.”

Despite it being her first time back on the field this year, Karsyn was a bit more collected when she hit her big fly four batters later.

“I feel like I’m the calmer twin, she expresses her feelings about more things,” Karsyn said with a smile. “She expresses herself more, but we were both so excited.”

The long balls pushed ACE to a 6-4 victory in the second game and earned them a trip to the Elite Eight Columbus for the third time in four seasons. 

There were almost too many playoff heroes for the Gryphons to count. Hallar walked off Game 1 after junior pitcher Ella Allen hurled 10 innings for the complete game and allowed just two earned runs. Sophomore Gizelle Giles drove in a run and scored the tying run in the first game, then pitched all seven frames in the second.

“Ella had already pitched the first two playoff games, and tonight she pitched great in the first game… but 17 innings is a lot in one night, and we knew Jeff Davis was going with somebody fresh, so we relied on Gizelle,” McLendon said. “She’s a sophomore, she hadn’t pitched a whole lot for us, but she came through big time. Both of them were huge tonight.”

ACE is now likely headed for a matchup with Toombs County, the No. 1 team in the bracket, in Columbus. The two twins, half of the team’s four seniors that were starters when the Gryphons won the state championship in 2021, talked almost as much about the trip to Columbus as they did their home runs.

“I’m so, so pumped we are headed to Columbus. It’s kind of like trying to repeat what we did in our first year, (winning) a title and everything,” Karlee said. “We are so excited. Go Gryphons.”

Game 1 recap: A thrilling finish

ACE, 27-6, moved to the second round after defeating fellow Region 2 team Dublin in two games last week. The No. 9 Yellowjackets defeated Armuchee 5-0 and 13-0 in the first round. The Gryphons met Jeff Davis once in the regular season, winning 5-3 back in August.

After Allen retired the Jeff Davis side in order to start the evening, ACE wasted no time and started a rally with a leadoff walk. Even with another walk with two outs, though, pitcher Carrie Ellen Arnold escaped the jam unscathed heading into the second.

It was the Jackets’ turn to get the line moving in the next frame, as a walk and a soft ground ball on the infield gave them runners at first and second with one out. A forceout at third and a clutch strikeout from Allen ended the top of the second without runs yet again.

ACE put the first run of the game across in the bottom of the inning after a walk and a wild throw from the catcher put courtesy runner Brook Norris at third with one out. Karsyn Yates then grounded out to shortstop to drive Norris in and put the Gryphons in front.

Arnold wanted vengeance in the third, though, and a huge swing from the Jeff Davis pitcher resulted in a three-run shot to left field and a 3-1 lead for the Yellowjackets. Gryphons outfielder Avery Stone nearly made a great play and hauled the ball in, but it was just out of her reach and over the fence.

Both sides posted a few blank innings from there. Arnold kept the Gryphons just a tick off, as ACE hitters repeatedly fouled pitches back and popped out to the catcher. The Gryphons had just one hit through four innings.

The Yellowjackets put a few runners on and advanced them with throwing errors before a muffed ground ball at third base by Giles put the Gryphons behind 4-1.

ACE managed to push one run across in the bottom of the sixth with a walk and some good base running on wild pitches, and Allen got out of the seventh thanks to some great defense from shortstop Sophie Denney and Karlee Yates.

The Gryphons started to claw back when they were down to their last three outs. Reese Thames laced a double down the left field line before Giles made up for her earlier fielding error with a sharp single up the middle to score courtesy runner Brook Norris and make it 4-3.

Allen completed the comeback two batters later, laying down a perfect bunt between the circle and first base to force a hurried throw that went wide of first base. Giles scampered home to tie the game at 4-4, and Allen ended up at second as the winning run.

The rally ended prematurely, though, when Allen strayed too far from second base and was doubled off on a line drive to send the game into extra innings.

Allen walked a batter to start the extra frame, but some simple defensive plays and a great running grab by Stone in left sent it to the bottom of the eighth still 4-4. The Gryphons couldn’t capitalize on the prime opportunity with the top of the order, however, and the game went to a full nine innings.

Tiebreaker rules put a runner on second each inning after a scoreless ninth. While the Yellowjackets moved their runner from second to third on a wild pitch, Allen escaped the jam with some soft outs on the infield.

ACE finally broke through in the tenth with Hallar’s clutch infield hit to snag the Gryphons the first game, 5-4.

Game 2 recap: Storybook home runs seal the deal

The second game felt less intense early. Both teams scored a run in the first inning with alert baserunning, but starting pitchers Giles and Jacqueline VillaSenior both settled in from there.

The Gryphons struck for one run in the fourth and had the chance for more with two runners on, but a bloop by Giles did not quite fall. The score remained 2-1 in ACE’s favor until the top of the fifth, when a two-out liner snuck inside the third-base line to plate a third Gryphons run. 

The Yellowjackets got a runner up to third in their half of the fifth with a Jazmine Villasenior double and wild pitch, but it looked like ACE would escape the jam with two quick infield outs.

Another pitch from Giles escaped Thames’ glove behind the plate, though, scoring another Jeff Davis run to make it 3-2 going to the sixth.

It mattered little once Karlee, knee brace and all, laid into a pitch and sent it flying out of the yard to left-center in the top of the sixth. The blast gave the Gryphons a crucial insurance run and brought Yates’ teammates pouring out of the dugout to greet her as she hit the griddy before stepping on home plate.

Not to be outdone, Karsyn clobbered a ball the opposite way later in the inning with a runner on. The two-run homer felt like a dagger for ACE and brought shouts of disbelief and joy from spectators as the other Yates sister crossed the dish.

Though Jeff Davis plated two runs of its own in the bottom of the inning, the Gryphons stayed in control and wrapped the game up with a clean seventh inning to advance to Columbus.