Houston County secures spot in Sweet 16 with sweep of North Atlanta

WARNER ROBINS — North Atlanta almost forced Houston County into a game three, but the Bears held on to sweep the Warriors in Thursday’s playoff doubleheader.

Game one was almost no contest as the Bears won 10-0, but recent returnee Carson Small pitched in relief to help HoCo win 3-2 in game two.

“He did fantastic. That’s what we’ve been talking about all year is we’ve got to get him healthy and get him back,” Bears coach Matt Hopkins said. “Even if it’s out of the [bullpen] it just adds so much depth. It gives us something that we didn’t have — a left handed arm…I mean, he pitched against Blessed Trinity, game three, bases loaded, no outs and got out of it last year. So, this isn’t new to him, and you need that type of stuff.”

Small threw 2.2 innings, 38 pitches, four strikeouts and one walk to help the Bears across the finish line as the bats fizzled in the final three innings.

“A good early start, and [North Atlanta] made some bad mistakes early,” Hopkins said of what helped HoCo win through struggles at the plate. “Eli Stephens set the tone with a really good ball in the backside home run in the first inning…but you could feel it. We won game one, got into game two and then just got kind of complacent…We lost a little bit of that edge that we had early on. We’ve got to learn in the playoffs you can’t lose that. You’ve got to roll with it for two games.”

PHOTOS: More shots from Thursday’s doubleheader.

HoCo recorded five hits through 29 at-bats, one being a solo home run for Eli Stephens, his first since March 8.

Stephens drove in the second run for the Bears before Christian Wahiwe stole home to make it 3-0.

North Atlanta scored one inning in the fourth and fifth innings, but stranded the tying run in the sixth and never got on base again.

Houston County 10, North Atlanta 0

Houston County took off in the first inning and never looked back in game one of their playoff doubleheader against the North Atlanta Warriors on Thursday.

The Bears were walked five times in the first inning as they scored five runs highlighted by a two-RBI double from Troy Carpenter.

In the second inning HoCo put the ball in play six times and scored three runs, a positive result for a team that struggled with that earlier in the season.

“I think we’re doing better at the plate. We’re still inconsistent at times, but we’re doing a better job of seeing our pitches and driving them,” HoCo coach Matt Hopkins said. “They threw a couple of pretty good lefties at us, and it’s no secret that lefties have been a little bit tricky for us at times. But I think that the lineup we have now is a much more comfortable lineup for our guys and they’re in the spots they feel best at. So hopefully we’ll get hot and get everybody going here down the range.”

It looked like North Atlanta was going to pose a serious threat to start the game. The leadoff hitter ambushed Will Allen’s first pitch of the game for a base hit, and a passed ball moved him to second base.

Allen coaxed three whiffs out of the next batter for a strikeout, and a sac fly put a runner on third. The cleanup hitter walked, but the fifth batter hit into the final out.

That was the Warriors’ best inning. For the remaining four there were a lot of flyouts, and North Atlanta couldn’t gain any ground as the game ended in five innings.

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Sweeping the series in two games was huge for a Bears team with a banged up pitching staff. Pitching Small in relief in game two risked leaving him out of a potential game three, but Hopkins was satisfied with the way everything turned out.

“Anytime you can avoid pitching more guys, it’s huge and you’ve got to conserve pitches while trying to win and we were kind of getting in that position there,” Hopkins said. “[North Atlanta] is in a position where if they score, they tie it up or maybe go ahead…but we decided to go for it and thought [Small] could give us some good innings and sure enough, he came in and kept them from scoring.”