McDONOUGH— The Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy Chargers faced little resistance as they blasted past Galloway in two games Thursday to advance to the Sweet 16 of the Class A-Private state softball tournament.

The Lady Chargers entered the postseason as the 11th team in the GHSA Class A-Private Power Rankings and were tasked with facing Galloway, who was ranked No. 22.

Palmer Pinholster faced Galloway in Game 1. A Lyndsey Darden single in the bottom of the first inning allowed the Lady Chargers to pick up the first run of the game when Ansley Jenkins hit a sacrifice fly.

The next two innings were silent for both sides as the Chargers were able to reach the fourth inning with a one-run lead.

A single by Caris Wright to right field started the fourth-inning outburst. Pinholster followed with a single to left field before Katie Ketner drove in both runners on a two-RBI triple.

A Cassidi Thomas sacrifice fly brought Ketner across home plate, giving ELCA a four-run lead. Another three runs scored in the inning to put the Lady Chargers in complete control of the game. A passed ball in the bottom of the fifth inning gave ELCA an 8-0, run-rule victory.

ELCA head coach Doug Campbell said it was important for his young team to get off to a strong start in Game 1.

“It’s important when you have a young team because you can find yourself in a bind if you allow teams to hang around,” said Campbell. “Our team is not experienced enough top to bottom to take anybody lightly. We could lose a game like this if we’re not careful. It was important for us to take care of business. We started slow in the first game, but we finally got it together.”

Pinholster was excellent for ELCA in Game 1. She allowed no hits and just one walk in five innings of work.

ELCA didn’t wait as long to jump on Galloway in Game 2. The Lady Chargers used a four-run first inning before scoring 10 runs in the second inning. An eight-run inning later in the game gave ELCA a 23-1 victory and a trip to the Sweet 16.

The Lady Chargers will face a familiar foe in Strong Rock Christian School in the second round. The two teams have met three times this season with Strong Rock winning two of those games. However, those three games were decided by a combined nine runs.

Campbell said he’s expecting more close games in next week’s series.

“They are more experienced. They didn’t lose anybody from last year and we lost nine,” said Campbell. “Where we’re supposed to be, we’re very satisfied with how we’ve matched up with them thus far because expectations are much lower for us.

“Every game has been neck and neck with them,” he continued. “We feel like we can play with them, we’ve shown that. We don’t feel like we have a lot to lose at this point. Our goals for this year, we’ve achieved. Really, we’re happy with were we are with how we started the season.”