From Staff Reports
An eight-run lead turned out to be exactly what Houston County High needed Friday at Warner Robins High. The Demons scored seven times in the bottom of the fourth, but two shutout innings of relief from Mark Bell secured another Region 2-AAAAA sub-region victory for the Bears 8-7.
Offensively, it was ‘here we go again’ for Jason Brett’s red-hot hitting lineup that has accounted for 12 straight wins. Houston County scored six times in the top of the first. The next two came in the fourth inning.
Hunter Phillips, the starting pitcher for the visiting club, worked 3 1/3 innings and struck out four. He gave way to Hunter Jackson as Warner Robins went on its fourth-inning tear.
From the plate, the Bears have been all about the extra-base hit in closing out the March portion of the schedule. They recorded four doubles Friday while Hunt Smith homered during his two-RBI performance. Phillips hit two doubles and drove in two runs while Dalton Carriker doubled for two RBI and Blake Jackson doubled.
David Umphreyville also had two hits.
For Warner Robins, Trey Maddox homered and battled home three runs. A.J. Priaulx doubled and Landon Hopf hit two singles. Jarrod Crum pitched 6 1/3 innings with three strikeouts.
BEARS BLAST EAGLES
Nine doubles in a month would be good for any high school baseball team. Houston County High had nine two-bag hits in one game March 26. The Bears improved to 13-1 overall with the 12-4 sub-region win in 2-AAAAA against city rival Northside High.
Jordan McIlwain, throwing 92 pitches, was the winning hurler with three strikeouts in six complete frames. The Eagles only had three hits, and one of those was a solo home run from Alex Vanderstock.
Houston led the game 5-0 after two complete, but Northside made it interesting cutting the margin down to one, 5-4, through four. The Bears answered with seven unanswered.
Dalton Carriker and Hunt Smith each had two of the nine doubles. Justin Jones doubled, hit two singles and drove in one run. Smith had two RBI, as did Hunter Phillips, who doubled and singled.
Other doubles came off the bats of Blake Jackson (RBI), Josh Profit (RBI) and Conner Smith. David Umphreyville singled twice with one RBI.
HC ALSO BEATS JONES COUNTY
Due to the unpredictability of the weather forecast on March 22, Houston County High moved its scheduled home baseball game with Jones County High to Monday, March 25 (It was incorrectly stated in the March 27 edition that the game was rescheduled for April 11. That is an originally scheduled date between the two schools as all teams in the 2-AAAAA sub-region are playing each other three times this season).
Just like with Tuesday’s matchup with Northside, Houston pitching only gave up three hits to the Greyhounds. In terms of runs, the game went back and forth a couple of times with the Bears holding on to win 8-5. It was 3-0 Houston after two innings, but Jones surged on top 5-3 in the top of the fifth.
Umphreyville matched all of the Greyhound hit total with three. Profit doubled twice with one RBI. Carriker and Jones each doubled, and Carriker, Hunt Smith, Andy Moore and Jackson each batted home one run.
HORNETS TOP CRISP
Reid Hudson doubled and tripled for four RBI, and Dustin Hall doubled and homered in Westfield’s 9-4 non-region home win Friday against Crisp Academy.
For the Hornets, it was win No. 8 in a row.
Crisp Academy had a 3-2 lead in the third inning, but Westfield scored seven straight for 9-3 after the fourth.
Hall’s production led to three RBI. Evan Williams added a double.
Each team was charged with four errors. Coach Rob Fitzpatrick used his pitching trio of Beau Holcomb, Hall and William Amos. Holcomb, as the starter, worked four full innings to get the win.
WESTFIELD, SOUTHLAND COMBINE FOR 31
No, Landon Beamon didn’t take the field to kick a game-winning field goal for the Westfield Hornets against the Southland Raiders on Monday. Rob Fitzpatrick’s baseball team went to Americus on a windy Monday and extended a winning streak to seven straight. The final was 17-14 in the Hornets’ favor though the Raiders outhit Westfield 12 to 10.
Southland had five errors.
The Hornets led 5-0 after two innings and 5-4 after three. The visitors never trailed as they increased the margin to six in the fourth only to see Southland pull back within one, 11-10, in the fifth. The teams combined for nine runs in the seventh inning alone.
Dustin Hall, Gehrig Broxton and Garrett Brown each drove in two runs. Brown homered while Hall and Broxton both doubled. Evan Williams also doubled in a run while Reid Hudson had two hits.
REGION 2-AAAA
The Veterans High baseball Warhawks are winnings of eight consecutive contests, six of which are in region play. The lastest triumph took place Thursday in Macon, where Ross Martin pitched six full innings to defeat the Howard High Huskies 5-1. As Preston Sparks pitched the final inning, Howard had just two hits overall.
Martin fanned five batters.
At the plate, Kal Dempsey paced the attack with three hits, one of which was a double.
Perry High needed eight complete innings from John Hartzog Friday at home, and that’s what he delivered in pitching a three-hit shutout of the Mary Persons High Bulldogs. The Panthers scored with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to win 1-0.
Hartzog threw 99 pitches and struck out seven.
