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Oh, she’s going to kill me.
Mary Wilson Avant, the fantastic pitcher for Georgia who just pitched back-to-back shutouts over #4 seeded Florida to send the Bulldogs to the 2021 Women’s College World Series, has every right to be on top of the world this weekend.
On Saturday, she gave up just four hits in the 6-0 blanking of the Gators after allowing just three on Friday night in a 4-0 win.
If our math is correct, that’s 14 innings, 13 K’s, seven hits allowed, three walks, no earned runs, and, most importantly, two wins to send UGA to OKC. Against a very good hitting Gators’ squad!
THE BULLDOGS ARE COMING FOR YOU, OKC!!!!!!!!!!!!! #Team25 | #GoDawgs | #RoadtoOKC pic.twitter.com/vf6o4Jamgm
— Georgia Softball (@UGASoftball) May 29, 2021
Back in 2015, when I was running my own website called Full Count Softball I got to cover Mary Wilson quite a bit on the high school and club scene as she played for Buster Bass with the East Cobb Bullets and the Georgia Impact Premier.
Mary Wilson went to Stratford Academy in Macon, Georgia and graduated in 2016 with a 3.9 GPA and was a multi-sport athlete who also played basketball and track.
In fact the current college pitcher was All-Region in basketball and won Class AAA State in discus multiple times, even setting the school record in the discuss.
Coach Bass told me at the time: “Mary Wilson always wants the ball, she’s a strong competitor and is throwing in the mid-60’s now with good movement.”
At one point when I interviewed her and her family, she was already committed to Georgia and her father, Jeff Wilson, told me back in September of 2014.
“Yes, Mary Wilson is still committed to University of Georgia. We have been in constant contact with the coaches during the past month or so. Coach Tony Baldwin and Coach Lou Harris-Champer came to watch her play at both Triple Crown and PGF.”
Back in that 2013/2014 travel ball season with the Bullets – Bass team she was already one of the top pitchers in the nation and led her team to a 6th place finish at Triple Crown Nationals, going 7-0 with 29 K’s in 27 innings and compiling a 0.26 ERA.
Even better, she helped the Bullets go 4-1 to finish 5th at PGF Nationals that year with a 1.91 ERA and 19 K’s in 22 innings. The only loss: to Doug Myers So Cal A’s, which won it all.
In the fall of 2014, she played for Coach Jeff Treadway at Stratford Academy and if his name is familiar, it’s because he played for the Atlanta Braves during the 1990’s and helped the team make it to the World Series.
Mary Wilson would earn multiple All-State honors at the prep level and even won the Class AAA State title as a freshman.
Yea, she was very, very good and I had her in my top 100 rankings for the Class of 2016.
But Mary Wilson was also well-rounded and, besides sports, was active in school functions such as her prom held April 10, 2015 at the historic Cox Capital Theatre in downtown Macon, Georgia.
The theme was “Masquerade Ball” and, as her mother Elizabeth Avant told me at the time: “Mary Wilson literally decorated for the dance all morning and flew home to shower and ‘doll up’ and was out the door again with no time to spare!
We still have the photos from that beautiful Spring night six years ago when Mary Wilson was showcasing her off-the-field life too!
Here’s a trip back to memory lane that we know Mom will love… to Mary Wilson, I say: “Congratulations! And now you have more important things to focus on… like winning another championship in your storied softball career! Haha! Best of luck in the World Series!
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
*****
*** Scroll down to seem more of Mary Avant in her prom photos held in the Spring of 2015!
