Hannah George leads Northside into state quarterfinals
Pitching or hitting, Northside’s Hannah George can do it all.
Arguably the best softball player to come through the Bi-City area in many years, the University of North Carolina commit did it all to propel her Lady Patriot team to the GHSA Elite 8 tournament, which starts Thursday (6 p.m. vs. Oconee County) at South Commons (Field 3).
It marks the second straight season Northside has made it to the quarterfinals.
“Hopefully, we’ll win it all,” George said. “We have a really good team, better than last year … maybe the best we’ve ever had at Northside.”
George, a junior, pitched a pair of shutouts in the round of 16 over Cartersville last weekend. She scattered eight hits in her Game 1 win but seemed to get stronger in Game 2, allowing only one hit.
As if that wasn’t enough, in the top of the first inning in Game 2, George stepped to the plate and launched a two-run homer, more than enough offense the junior needed to finish the job on the mound.
“She’s one of those players who I won’t ever coach again,” said Northside coach Brandon Jenkins Tuesday night after the team practiced at CSU in preparation for the weekend tournament. “As a high school coach, you’re just blessed to have someone like her. What people don’t understand is that she hits really well, she pitches really well, but on top of her God given ability, she outworks anyone I’ve ever seen at the high school level. She does a really good job making sure she gets her lessons in.”
“I just work hard at it,” George said. “My parents put a lot of time and effort into me too, and I’m really grateful for that. They really back me up when I need them. There’s a lot of people around me who support me as well.”
It has been argued that George may be one of if not the best high school player the Bi-City has ever seen. Jenkins, whose sister played and father coached softball at Columbus back in the late 1990s, when the Blue Devils, Hardaway, and Shaw all had powerful teams, definitely is qualified to respond to that notion.
“That’s saying a lot,“ he said. “Back then, Hardaway won a state championship, and Shaw and Columbus were right there with them. But what I’ve seen from Hannah, I’d put her up against any of those girls. She could compete with the best of them.”
As part of a military family, Hannah came to Columbus when her father was stationed at Fort Benning. Jenkins spotted her at a summer camp prior to her freshman year, and the rest is history.
“She went to Blackmon Road (Middle School) and came in under the radar because no one knew much about her,” Jenkins said. “We do a camp every summer downtown, and my pitching coach said ‘we may have found the best player in our program as a freshman.’ She hit two balls off the fence, and she’s done nothing but gotten better in her pitching and hitting.”
As a testament to that improvement, she batted .396 her freshman year, up to .476 as a sophomore, and improved to her current .478 average as a junior, with eight home runs. She also has a 12-3 record pitching with a 0.60 ERA; opponents are batting just .127 against her. In 92 innings, she has struck out 105 batters.
“(Her record) is kind of misleading because her three losses were two against Calhoun, who is No. 1 in 3A and should win another championship, and the other loss came to Allatoona, who at the time was No. 2 in their classification,” Jenkins said.
Perhaps most importantly to the coach, Jenkins says George has a gift of improving those around her.
“She just makes everyone on our team better,” he said. “The girl who hits behind her, Jada Chadwick, is hitting .508 this year with seven home runs. It’s kind of a friendly competition. It’s pretty awesome as a coach to sit back and watch them go to work.”
“I like to help others,” George said. “If they’re having a bad day, I tell them I have their back, just like if I’m having a bad day, they have my back.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Hannah George leads Northside into state quarterfinals."