The 2025 Slow Pitch Softball season is drawing to a close with the postseason right around the corner, beginning on Wednesday and Thursday, April 16-17 at the Twin Creeks Softball Complex in Woodstock with all five fields being used for the tournament.
Slow pitch softball was re-introduced by the GHSA during the 2016-2017 school season after a hiatus starting in 2009, but prior, the sport has been played since 1981. As it has been for the last couple of seasons, the slow pitch softball bracket will be a double-elimination tournament which will allow teams one loss in the postseason throughout their hunt for a state championship.
The first and second rounds of this year’s tournament will be held Wednesday, followed by the rest of the tournament including the championship game Thursday.
CREEKVIEW WANTS ANOTHER ONE
Creekview took home the crown during last year’s postseason when the Grizzlies defeated Jefferson in three games to take home the school’s second slow pitch softball state championship, its first since 2019.
Jefferson forced a winner-take-all game in the championship series a season ago as the Dragons defeated the Grizzlies, 11-10, in extra innings. Creekview followed the loss to Jefferson with a 14-3 victory over the Dragons, as the Grizzlies took home the state championship. Jefferson made its way out of the consolation bracket in 2024, making it all the way to the championship series where they came up just short against the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies avenged their 2023 first round postseason defeat to Dodge County and Sequoyah, and followed it up by winning a championship of their own in 2024.
“Saying we are state champions is an amazing feeling,” said Creekview slow pitch softball head coach Jen Maloney after last season’s state title. “These girls worked extremely hard, came together as a unit, and fought through adversity with and for each other. The 2019 state championship team was an extremely talented group. They were upperclassmen-heavy, so they had a lot of experience under their belt.”
Last year Creekview became the second school since 2017 to win multiple state championships in slow pitch softball, joining Haralson County who has won three titles including 2017, 2018 and 2022.
THE STAGE IS SET
The defending-champion Grizzlies hold the No. 5-seed in this year’s state championship, as Creekview is looking to become the first team to repeat as state champions since Haralson County in 2018.
Richmond Hill holds the top-seed in this season’s slow pitch softball state championship tournament as the Wildcats will face the No. 16-seed Woodstock in the first round at 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
The Wildcats are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2024 season that saw them be eliminated in the semi-finals of the tournament with a loss to eventual-champion Creekview, 11-1, in the winners bracket before being eliminated by Jefferson in the consolation bracket, 12-10, to end their season.
Richmond Hill is looking to add the programs first-ever GHSA slow pitch softball state championship to its trophy cases and are in prime-position to do so, holding the No. 1 overall seed heading into the tournament.
The Jefferson Dragons are back in the postseason coming off the championship loss. The Dragons hold the No. 4-seed this season and will face North Oconee in the first round.
The potential of a state championship rematch grows likely as the fifth-seeded Grizzlies and the fourth-seeded Dragons could cross paths for the second season in a row, this time in the second round.
Follow the links to the full bracket or see the past champions or check back Wednesday and Thursday for recaps of the tournament rounds.
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