Extra Innings | Houston County sets themselves up for another region championship with series win over Tift County

The Houston County Bears took home a 2-1 series win over the Tift County Blue Devils last week, who after HoCo’s loss to Thomas County Central, had sole possession over the number one spot in region 1-6A.

The two clubs are now tied 10-2 in the region standings, with the Bears holding a head-to-head tie-breaker.

There’s still a lot for HoCo to think about for the rest of the season, so with that being said, let’s get into Extra Innings…

1) The series against Lee County has become very important

On paper, it should be smooth sailing for the Bears from here on out. While the 2-1 series win over the Blue Devils makes securing a region championship easier, they have to sweep Lee County to keep the top spot.

PHOTOS: Missed the action? Check out more shots from last Friday’s series.

If Tift County sweeps Veterans, and HoCo sweeps Lee County, the Bears will take home another region championship. If HoCo even loses one game in that series, Veterans will have to beat Tift County at least once to keep the Bears up top.

HoCo coach Matt Hopkins has warned his team all season about complacency; those lessons become all more important now in the final stretch.

“If we sweep Lee [County], we’re No. 1 no matter what. If we lose one, we’re going to need Veterans to help us out and beat Tift [County],” Hopkins said. “The loss last week to TCC kind of put us in a little bit of a bind where we have to be a little more perfect. But we control our own destiny and that’s all we can ask, right?”

2) HoCo found success where other teams could not

Before the HoCo series, Tift County had only allowed 13 runs in region play, and 29 all season. The Bears scored 13 in the series alone, five more than the next highest scoring team (TCC scored eight runs in their series loss).

In game two of last Friday’s doubleheader, the Bears opened the first inning with five runs. Where they couldn’t find any space for balls to drop in Game 1, they hit several well-placed line drives to go up 5-0 before a fly out ended the inning.

It was a dramatic change from the first game, where the Bears finished that game with only two hits.

Their tough schedule early in the season that featured Lewisburg and Spain Park (ranked third in Mississippi and sixth in Alabama respectively) helped the Bears complete an aggressive turnaround to take the second game 8-0.

“We’ve seen so much that when you run up against a good team you’re not surprised and you’re not overwhelmed,” Hopkins said. “That’s why we’re a little bit frustrated. We thought that we should have had a better approach and had a better chance than we did. If you give up one run, you should win.”

3) A Bear turned Dawg

Junior pitcher Will Allen announced his commitment to play baseball at the University of Georgia on socials on April 2.

Allen has been the Bears’ ace this season. Through 38.2 innings, he’s posted a 5-1 win/loss record, a 0.72 ERA to go with 54 strikeouts and only nine walks and four earned runs.

Big addition for the Dawgs in a couple of years, congrats to Will!