The Jones County High fastpitch softball team finished the 2007 regular season 16-11 overall and 10-2 in sub-region 4B-AAAA and are now in the midst of the 4-AAAA region tournament in Milledgeville.

The Lady ’Hounds entered the tournament as the second seed from sub-region B, after losing twice this season, most recently last Thursday, to Northside, the sub-region’s top seed.

Jones began play Tuesday, 4 p.m., against sub-region A third seed Mt. Zion.

The winner and loser of that game met the winner and loser, respectively, of a game between sub-region A top seed Griffin and B fourth seed Dutchtown or Stockbridge in the second round of the double-elimination tourney, 6 p.m.

Wins in both of those games would guarantee the Lady Greyhounds a spot in next weekend’s AAAA state sectionals.

A win and a loss would force the ’Hounds into a must-win situation Wednesday, and two losses would end the team’s season.

The region tournament finals will be held at Georgia College and State University, with the third-place game being held at 4 p.m., the first finals game, 6 p.m., and the “if” finals game being held, 8 p.m.

“We’ve got two main goals for the region tournament,” Jones coach Blake Lyons said. “First, we need to make sure that we’re in position to move on to the state sectionals, but we’ve also set a goal to win region.”

Though Jones is 4-2 on the season against the other sub-region B teams in the tournament, Northside, Dutchtown, and Stockbridge, Lyons and his team have not seen any of the four sub-region A teams, Griffin, Lovejoy, Mt. Zion, and North Clayton, this season.

Of the teams on the other side of the sub-region, the coach is only familiar, for the most part, with Griffin, who finished second in last year’s region tournament.

The Lady Bears could be the Lady ’Hounds’ second round opponent in the tourney.

“They’ve got a good quality pitcher and they’re very aggressive,” Lyons said. “They’re good at doing the ‘small ball’ stuff.”

Griffin is the number-one seed from sub-region A, and Jones could have possibly been the number-one seed from sub-region B if not for a 3-1 loss last Thursday at Northside.

“I can’t really pinpoint anything specific. I just kind of think that they’re a little better team than we are,” Lyons said. “Both teams hit the ball hard – we just hit it at them, and they hit it in the gaps.”

Pitcher Caitlyn Asbell took the loss in her first start of season against the Eagles. Freshman Kristen Carr took a 3-0 loss Sept. 11.

“Our pitchers in both situations struggled hitting their spots,” Lyons said.

A defensive strategy was also a factor in the loss. After Northside batters hit a couple of balls over the outfielders’ heads, the coaches moved their players back, and a “bloop” hit scored the Eagles’ second and third runs.

“Normally that wouldn’t happen,” Lyons said of the hit falling in between his infielders and outfielders.

The Lady ’Hounds’ only run came as Carr doubled in Chelsi Sawyer.

“We had a lot of scoring opportunities. We just had bad luck,” Lyons said. “I don’t know if it was a lack of execution as much as just the wrong things happening at the wrong times.”

If the region tournament were to come down to the Greyhounds and the Eagles once again, Lyons would like to think an old adage would be proven true.

“They say it’s hard to beat a good team three times,” he said. “I think if we played them 10 times, we’d win three or four. We match up well with them, but they just have a little edge.”

They Lady ’Hounds have a unique experience with the week of the region tournament coinciding with fall break.

Lyons is using the off days from school to help prepare his team for tournament runs at the region and state levels.

“(Our games and practices this week) will mirror the Saturday games in those tournaments because we’re not in school,” Lyons said.

Also, the coach held Monday’s practice in two separate sessions to mirror playing multiple games in one day.

“One of the weaknesses of our team this year has been playing well in a second game,” Lyons said.

“When we’re playing tournament games, we’re going to have to adjust to different schedules, so I think practicing at different times will help us be better prepared,” third baseman Katelyn Smith said.

Lyons’ preparation is in an effort to instill the same mindset into his players that Smith said the team has heading into tournament play – confidence.