How George County has become one of nation’s best softball teams during revenge tour
“Humble” isn’t the word, according to first-year George County head coach Anna Grace Cooley.
And she’s right. There’s pride in the wrath unfolding on the Lady Rebels’ schedule. Their latest victim was a top-10 ranked Hancock team that denied George County’s entry into the final round of the 2024 playoffs. It wasn’t close. The Rebels blasted their district rival on the road Tuesday, 9-3, and tagged star two-way senior Teegan DeWitt with a season-worst five earned runs.
But humbleness must show, nonetheless, even with a 15-1 record and a brief appearance among the nation’s best 25 teams as another battle with the Hawks looms and the playoffs await just a month ahead.
“We have to take it one game at a time,” junior infielder Jordyn Bradley said. “One practice, one pitch, one out at a time. It’s just another game. We don’t want to hype it up too much.”
The win wasn’t just another notch in the “W” column — it was a symbolic moment in their tour for revenge, a season-long quest to avenge last year’s South State series heartbreak.
George County had won the 2023 6A state title, but it was the Hawks who sent the Rebels home in three games during last year’s semifinal games before falling to South Panola in the championship.
“I had never known a season to end like that, last year was my first time since my ninth grade year to not make it to the end,” junior center fielder Aryana Dixon said.
Experience beyond age
What makes the run so remarkable — and dangerous for everyone else in the state — is the team’s youthful lineup.
A rundown of George County’s 30-plus player roster reveals just one senior in pinch-running specialist Dekari McNair. Nearly every plate appearance and every inning pitched in 2025 has been from a freshman, sophomore or junior.
What has Cooley’s team playing above its age is the amount of time the players have spent on the field together.
“They’ve been playing together since they were six years old — obviously they have good chemistry,” said Cooley, who was on staff as an assistant before taking over the head coaching role. “Now I’ve just got to teach the fundamentals. The chemistry is the easy part because they are so young and they’ve been together for such a long time and they’ve had success at such a young age. That’s a testament to the coaches they’ve had in their early years. I’m just blessed to be able to coach them now while they’re older and stronger and bigger.”
That chemistry pays dividends on the field. Junior pitcher Addison Davis, who tossed two scoreless innings and hit a home run against Hancock, emphasized the team’s unity and its impact on the pitching staff.
“Nothing is kept a secret, we just communicate well,” Davis said. “We’re always around each other. When I’m pitching, I know my defense has got me. It’s not the end all, be all if (the opposing batter) hits it. I have faith in them, and they have faith in me.”
Davis and sophomore Peyton Collins have allowed just 12 earned runs from the circle in 88 combined innings pitched, good for a 0.95 ERA from the one-two pitching combo.
The contributions come from everywhere. Sophomore Kyleigh Howell broke the school’s single season home run record as a freshman and nine of her 13 hits this year have been for extra bases.
Dixon is the team’s hit-leader and slap-swing specialist and showed off her game-breaking speed when she notched an inside-the-park home run against DeWitt and ran her team-high stolen base count to 15 with two swipes of the bag.
Sophomore Alexis O’Neal drove in four runs and has gotten on base in every game she’s played in. As a unit, they handed DeWitt her first loss of the season and only her third of the last three years.
DeWitt would get hers, however. She cut down nine Rebels and slammed her second home run of the season, which ran her hit streak to 23 games.
Looking ahead
The Rebels’ win over Hancock was a significant milestone in their season, but they know the job isn’t finished. The two teams split last season’s series and split the first two games of their playoff series.
But George County is approaching each game with a different demeanor from last season.
“The girls joke all the time and (last season) gets brought up it’s not even a joke to them,” Cooley said. “They’re not happy to talk about it. So when that’s the case, you know they’re hungry to see them again. It’s not one of those things where you talk about, like, ‘we just can’t hit them, we just can’t beat them.’ That’s not the case because we’ve beat them a couple times. They beat us a couple times when it mattered.”
The Rebels and Hawks seem destined to run into each other in the postseason once again in what is becoming a quick-brewing rivalry.
But the former has a bad taste in its mouth and is desperate for a cleanse.
“We’re hungry,” said junior infielder Jordyn Bradley. “We ain’t giving our secret away, but you just got to be prepared for us.”
