Houston County ends its season with a semifinals appearance

MARIETTA, Ga. — Houston County’s season came to a controversial end on Saturday.

Game two of the Bears’ doubleheader against the Pope Greyhounds was the opposite of game one — a complete defensive effort with few hits or runs to go around.

Pope took the game, and the series, with a 1-0 victory, but HoCo’s go-ahead two-RBI hit was called foul in the sixth inning.

PHOTOS: See pictures from Saturday’s series.

Bears coach Matt Hopkins is not a particularly animated coach, but he along with the entire dugout and horde of parents that made the trip expressed their displeasure with the call.

HoCo did have four errors that directly led to the Greyhounds scoring on a bunt in the third inning, and though Hopkins expressed he did not agree with the call, he made it clear it wasn’t the sole reason their season ended.

“I told our guys, and I need them to understand, we don’t want to go through the season thinking that that guy robbed our season,” Hopkins said. “We had our opportunities, and that’s the breaks, and that’s life. Life’s going to have situations that happen sometimes where things don’t go our way and we’ve got to be able to reset and handle those things.”

HoCo only mustered one hit in the game, a weak chopper from Isaiah Galason who was able to outrun the ball to first base in the sixth inning.

Kendall Jackson was hit-by-pitch to put two runners on, and Troy Carpenter walked to load the bases for Ethan Buffone before the controversial foul call was made.

“I was frustrated because we couldn’t execute small things. We couldn’t bunt, we couldn’t get runners over,” Hopkins said. “Every time [Pope] had an opportunity, they took it. I thought we hit the ball hard all day. The play of the game was the first inning and their right fielder makes an incredible play going away from him towards the line…we would have scored two runs.”

Once the heat died down and the game ended it started to sink in for parents, players and coaches alike.

The seniors, who finish their career with an Elite Eight and Final Four appearance to go with two state championships, had played their last game for Houston County.

Some cried, others hugged each other, and some just sat on the grass as they took in their last high school baseball game.

Several of them went up to Hopkins, who hugged them and talked to each of them for several minutes, shedding a few tears himself.

“I say it all the time, I don’t do it for the money, and when I do it’s time to stop,” Hopkins said. “I just told a couple of my seniors that have been hurt, one of my biggest things that I’ve been so proud of the way they’ve been good teammates and they supported their team and they’ve been in their corner even when their injuries were there. That makes me prouder than any accomplishments they could have done on the field simply because they were good people.”

“Baseball will end, being a person won’t. Being a husband and a father, a neighbor, an employee [won’t]. I couldn’t be prouder of what they were able to accomplish under a lot of bad situations and adversity this year.”

Pope 7, Houston County 4

The Houston County Bears and Pope Greyhounds put on an offensive clinic to open up Saturday’s semifinals.

The clubs combined for 21 hits and 11 runs with plentiful extra base hits.

Pope came out on top with some well-placed balls, and managed to stave off comeback attempts in the fourth and sixth innings from the Bears.

HoCo scored their first run on a RBI double from Eli Stephens in the fourth, which was preceded by another double from Kendall Jackson.

To that point the Bears had only hit doubles, and outside of a base hit in the fifth and seventh innings, seven of HoCo’s hits were doubles.

“They were really able to focus on some of the things we did game one and execute,” Bears coach Matt Hopkins said. “They were really seeing our main pitch that we like to throw, and they were just executing it. I thought we did a really good job of hitting the baseball [in game one]. We just couldn’t get the big hits when we needed them.”

The Bears had two on with one out as Ethan Buffone came up to bat, but his strikeout and a 6-4-3 double play on the next at-bat snatched the momentum away from HoCo as they trailed 3-1.

Pope pushed the lead to 5-1 before the Bears mounted another comeback attempt in the sixth, but that too ended with the momentum swinging back to the Greyhounds.

Vick Gann led off the inning with a hit-by-pitch, and Troy Carpenter brought him home with a RBI double that hit the center field fence.

Buffone followed that with another RBI double, but Ty Waters struck out to end the side as they trailed 5-3.

HoCo added one more run in the seventh, but ultimately fell in game one.

UP NEXT

Though many see this is a bitter end to a very promising season, an Elite Eight appearance, a Final Four appearance and two state championships is quite the legacy for these seniors to leave behind.

On behalf of the Houston Home Journal, congrats to the Bears on a great season, and to these seniors on a great career!