Houston County aided by five walks, three hit-by-pitches in 6-2 win over Lee County

WARNER ROBINS — Houston County (19-5, 11-2 Region 2-5A) didn’t get it done in the usual manner, but they found a way to win Game 1 of their region championship series against Lee County (13-11, 4-9 Region) on Tuesday.

Of the six runs the Bears scored in a 6-2 final, only two of those counted for an RBI.

Nick Hardee earned one by way of hit-by-pitch in the first inning, but Raymond Byrd’s single to right field in the sixth was the only hit to produce a run.

Two balks and an error were responsible for the other four, though HoCo head coach Matt Hopkins will take that any day of the week.

“They found a way to get runs in. I mean it’s the name of the game,” Hopkins said. “It doesn’t matter how you score just do it…The back end of our lineup is starting to swing the bat batter, and I thought they carried us at times tonight. It was hard to get consistent in the box, but I thought that they did a good job overall of just finding a way to score.”

Though they did find a way, the Bears were not productive at the plate with two outs.

Noah Odom was hit-by-pitch to load the bases in the first inning. Nick Hardee was also hit to drive in a run on the ensuing at-bat, but a fly out ended the inning with three runners stranded.

Two more runners were stranded the next inning with a two-out ground out. Even Tyson Ganas’ grounder in the third was an error, and a fly out to left ended the inning right after.

HoCo did a decent job of putting the ball in play and getting runners on but, as has happened many times this season, they didn’t fully take advantage in several situations.

“We just gotta execute. I know that’s kind of the easy answer, but we practice it every day,” Hopkins said. “I think that’s been one of our biggest issues all year is we’ll get in spots to score runs and blow a game open and guys try to do way too much instead of just staying within their approach. The goal is just get on first base. If you get on first base somebody’s going forward, at least we’re not getting out. We’ve got to do a better job of executing, that’s for sure.”

Defensively, however, the Bears were nearly spotless.

Aside from an indecisive approach to a fly ball in the first inning Lee County wasn’t able to get much through.

HoCo held them to a modest 7-for-28 at the plate and only walked them once, striking out three batters in Ethan Kenney’s seven innings.

The Trojans took the ball deep what felt like nearly every at-bat, but a developing outfield handled it well for the most part.

“We’re still trying to work through it,” Hopkins said. “The biggest problem we’ve got is we’re indecisive sometimes on how to go after a ball.”

Hopkins referenced Davian Hammonds waiting too long to commit to a fly ball, and it resulting in Lee County’s only two runs, as an example of the outfield still having some things to improve on. But they weren’t without praise-worthy plays, either.

“I thought they were covering pretty well. [Hammonds] ranged well in center and did a good job filling in for [Noah Odom] once he got hurt,” Hopkins said. “I thought overall they were doing a pretty decent job, and it’s still one of those that is a growth thing of being comfortable and attacking the baseball and trusting your instincts.”

UP NEXT

HoCo will head down to Leesburg for the doubleheader and potentially a region championship on April 10. The Bears just need to win one of the two games to seal the region crown.