Bears smash scoring record en route to another championship

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — It didn’t take long, but the Houston County Bears are champions once again.

A bullpen chock-full of talent and a record-setting offense helped them do it against what many would call a dynasty in the Pope Greyhounds.

The Greyhounds have been to a state championship game in six out of the last seven years, and were the reigning champs this year.

Though it will be a different silver claiming the trophy for the next season.

The Bears broke their own scoring record they set in 2021 and put up 345 runs this season, 15 of those came Thursday night against the Greyhounds.

“One thing about our lineup, you might keep us down for an inning or two but if you let our guys see you enough they’re going to start to get to you,” Head coach Matt Hopkins said.

That was the case for both games. The final scores for game one and two were 8-3 and 7-4 respectively.

In game one both teams were scoreless until the third inning — when the Bears broke the silence.

Elijah Smith specifically broke through on offense with a leadoff single in the bottom of the third. Ethan Buffone fouled a few times before walking, and a failed pickoff attempt brought those two to second and third base.

Eli Stephens joined his teammates on the bags after the Greyhounds’ Dawson Jones gave up another walk.

With the bases loaded, Jones threw another walk and Drew Burress advanced the others, bringing Smith home to score the first run of the series.

Andrew Dunfod and Kai Decker both took advantage of the plethora of runners the Greyhounds put on base for them, and each hit a 2-RBI ball to put the Bears up 5-0 with only one out.

After two more walks Jones came out in favor of Andrew Nelms. Nelms managed to do some damage control and took out the next two batters to end the inning. By then the damage was already done.

“I think the biggest thing is their guy lost control a little bit and we started being patient,” Hopkins said. “We talked to our guys after the first two innings, especially after we made that really big play and threw the kid out at the plate. After [Pope’s] leadoff triple you could feel the momentum but I thought we were too emotional. We kind of lost our ‘evenness.’ So when we got to the plate we weren’t able to take that approach that we talked about.”

“Once we were able to change our approach we started seeing some pitches,” Hopkins continued. “He gave us some free bags and we had some guys who can swing it, really put on some good battle ball, and we put up five really quick.”

The offense continued trickling from there but it was the defense, particularly the pitching, that kept the Greyhounds at bay for the remainder of the game.

University of Georgia commit Ryker Chavis threw an amazing game at just the right time. Even the Greyhounds’ head coach Chris Turco commented on his change-up in the post-game press conference.

The Greyhounds had a very difficult time hitting the balls Chavis gave them, evident by their only runs coming in the sixth.

By that time he started to look tired, but Hopkins came up to the mound, talked to him for a minute and Chavis finished the game without giving up another score.

“The biggest thing was realizing we had a five or six run lead, we were up and there were guys on base,” Hopkins said. “I think my exact words were, ‘Hey guys we’ll trade runs for outs right here.’ If we keep trading outs for runs eventually they’re going to run out of outs.”

“The other thing is you get deep in the game and fatigue does set in,” Hopkins continued. “Kids, adults, it doesn’t matter. You left early this morning, you were on a bus, you’re out of your normal schedule. Structure and schedule is so big for these kids. He’s a senior, he’s done it before. He was able to dig down and give us seven which was huge not to have to use any of our bullpen. We didn’t show them anything else and got through that first game with everything left in our arsenal if we needed it.”

That type of senior leadership is what wills teams through tough games and fatigue. Smith, Hunter Chiappetta, Burress, Dunford, have all been on this stage before. They know what it takes.

That’s a legacy worth leaving.

“It’s funny, that’s the word we’ve used: Legacy. This is my 15th year in Houston County. I was an assistant, 23-years-old coming out of college, didn’t even know if I wanted to still be a coach. I just needed a job,” Hopkins chuckled. ” I think we’re winning eight games a year when we first started. Within five-to-six we were competing for state championships with Jason Brett as our head coach and I was pitching coach for ten. Then we took over.”

“Obviously people put their own touch on the program and we talked about their legacy,” Hopkins continued. “We talked about we won it in 2014, 2015 we didn’t even make the playoffs. We lost in the region crossover, the guys did not have buy-in, we didn’t know how to handle success. 2016 we win it, 2017 we were down again. We had to build it back up.”

“We talked to this group about it last year. We win in 2021, graduate 11 seniors and some absolute studs. Last year we told them hold the bar, keep it where it is. That group performed beautifully last year, ran into Buford and lost in a sad Elite 8 to say the least. The legacy of the group is they were able to continue pushing and get us back to the top. Not only back to the top — they set a single season record for wins, runs scored, and we played arguably our hardest schedule ever and they were just so even. Our seniors were that group that if you looked at them, they never changed. They weren’t emotional, they stayed even. Our younger guys can really look to that.”

So those players will leave that legacy behind for the younger ones to pick up and make their own.

But you know what they say: Bear down and expect excellence.

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