By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LUCEDALE —George County standout infielder Blakely Slay has been selected as the “Softball Player of the Year” by SouthMiss6 Sports this season.

The honor is chosen by the SouthMiss6 Sports staff and a panel of area coaches, and is sponsored by David Baria, Attorney/Mediator, of the Baria Law Firm.

Slay, the Lady Rebels diminutive dynamo, was a major force both with the bat and her glove this season as she helped lead George County to the Class 6A state championship.

Slay, who has to stretch to get to 5-foot, finished the season with a .358 batting average and a .423 on base percentage. She had 38 hits and she drove in 30 runs, and she also added 20 stolen bases.

“Blakely has been an incredible leader for us this season,” first-year GCHS head coach Anna Grace Cooley said. “I challenged her at the beginning of the season to step up and be the leader that this team needed to get us to where we wanted to be, and despite dealing with tons of adversity throughout the entire season, Blakely did just that.”

Cooley, of all folks, should know just how well Blakey “Slayed” this season. After all, Cooley is a former GCHS standout softball player as well, and she then went on to become an All-State player on the next level at Pearl River Community College. She then moved on to play at William Carey to finish up her playing career.

Slay, who Cooley said picked up the nickname “Big Play Slay” in the state playoff run, really picked up her play when it counted most. In the final five games of the season, including a sweep in the Class 6A South State championship series sweep over rival Hancock as well as the three three game battle with perennial state power Neshoba Central in the state title match-up, batted .412 with seven hits including a double and triple, and she drove in seven runs in that span.

She was the only player in both South State games to drive in a run, as the Lady Rebels knocked off defending Class 6A South State champion Hanock and last year’s SouthMiss6 “Softball Player of the Year” Teegan DeWitt.

“Blakely is the epitome of what it means to be a servant (and) leader,” Cooley continued. “She loves her teammates whole-heartedly and it shows in the way she treats them. She loves this program, and she knows what we stand for.”

In the third and deciding game against the Lady Rockets in Hattiesburg at The University of Southern Mississippi Softball complex, with the title on the line, George County’s offense erupted for 10 runs in a 10-7 win and Slay was a big part of that winning attack.

The junior infield duo of Slay and her teammate Jordyn Bradley combined for half of the eight hits for the Lady Rebels in the season finale, and for a quartet of RBIs as well.

Bradley cracked a pair of RBI-triples for GCHS and Slay added two RBI-singles. Bradley drove in the first run of the game for GCHS and the last run.

In between those two hits, meanwhile, Slay’s run-scoring single that followed Bradley’s first hit gave GCHS its first lead of the game at 2-1. Then, in the bottom of the fourth frame, she delivered her second run-scoring single that erased a 6-5 Lady Rocket lead and knotted things up at 6-6.

The dynamic duo combined for eight hits and seven RBIs overall in the three game series vs. the Lady Rockets.

In the three state final games, Slay had five hits and five RBIs.

For her efforts, Slay was named the Most Valuable Player in the championship series.

“I was never nervous, I never doubted it because I knew we had this,” Slay said to reporters after the last game. “We have some amazing coaches and I’ve got some amazing teammates. And I’m so happy that I get to do it with this group of girls.”

Cooley, though put her thoughts most succinctly on her splendid shortstop to wrap it all up.

“She has been phenomenal at the plate all year, but especially since the South State series,” Cooley concluded. “The stats, though, just show how incredible of a softball player Blakely is. But, anyone who knows her knows that she walks around being such a light for Jesus, and is unapologetic for it. I am most proud of her for that, but I sure do love having our 4’-foot-11 shortstop on the field as well!”

Bradley, DeWitt and the East Central duo of Breyona Tanner and Abby Danis who helped lead the Lady Hornets to the Class 5A state title this season all rounded out the Top 5 in the voting for POY.

The Baria Law Firm sponsors the “Game Ball of the Week” here for SouthMiss6 Sports as well as the season-ending softball, baseball, basketball and football “Players of the Year”.

The Baria Law Firm, the Gulf Coast branch of Cosmich, Simmons and Brown, provides a beacon of trust and reliability in a complex legal landscape. Our firm’s unwavering dedication to you is at the core of everything we do. Choose David Baria of Baria Law as your legal ally, and let us handle the details while you focus on what matters most. Reach out to David at 228-395-8303 or dbaria@barialaw.com and at https://barialaw.com.