Gordon Lee Softball Wins 10th State Title in 11 Years
The year is 2010. The Lakers just won back-to-back titles at the NBA finals; the Saints just won their first Super Bowl; and Gordon Lee High School won their second fast pitch softball state title – the first being in 2004. 2010 was the year that started the dynasty the Gordon Lee Trojans continue to build and maintain up to this day. In the past 11 years, the Trojans have won 10 out of 11 championships. And in 2020, with a difficult schedule lined up and a total of 37 games, the team managed to make it to the state championship with only three losses.
In the past 15 years, the Lady Trojans have made an appearance at every championship game. This profound success is largely due to the wit and grit of 18-year head coach Dana Mull. After barely beating Commerce in the winner’s bracket final 12-9, Mull knew that changes had to be made before the Lady Trojans got a rematch against the Lady Tigers.
“We made some changes on how we were pitching each of them because we had plenty of notes on each batter after that long game last night, so we were able to take the time and change some of how we were pitching them, and we made some defensive adjustments,” Mull said about the match.
With the changes in place, Gordon Lee pulled out a seemingly effortless win with a final score of 8-2.
With this 11th state championship title, Gordon Lee surpassed Buford’s record and became the program with the most state championship wins. Buford has an impressive streak of 10 championships in 10 seasons, from 2007 to 2016, and in third Oconee County High School has eight championship titles.
Stand-out athlete and future Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Emma Minghini played lights out in her last career start as a Trojan, pitching seven strong innings and allowing for just two hits from the opposing Lady Tigers. Hitting an RBI-single in the top of the first inning, and then gaining two more RBIs and one more hit for the team, Minghini was a force in both the top and bottom of the innings.
“This team worked really, really hard and improved so much over the course of a year and have really come together,” Mull said. “Looking from the first game to the last, we definitely got a lot better, and we’ve come a long way this year.”
The dynasty of the Trojans team endures on and will likely be a prominent team continuing into the future.
Written by: Lexi Fitzpatrick
