Houston County splits Friday night doubleheader with Tift County

WARNER ROBINS — Immediately after a frustrating 1-0 game one loss, the Houston County Bears piled into the clubhouse.

Recent University of Georgia commit John Davis gave the Tift County Blue Devils (17-3, 10-2 Region 1-6A) a full seven innings, held the Bears (17-5, 10-2 Region) to two hits and dished out 10 strikeouts to shut out HoCo for only the second time this season.

After a long talk in the clubhouse and a break between games, the Bears came out swinging to take game two of Friday night’s doubleheader 8-0 behind nine hits and six RBI.

“Just the frustration with how we kind of let their pitcher take over the game,” HoCo coach Matt Hopkins said of the message in the clubhouse between games. “Now, give him credit. He did a fantastic job of mixing pitches and getting us off of our approach. But it was more just being more aggressive and understanding that we were in control and we needed to set the tone early, and they answered the call and came out and hit the baseball.” 

PHOTOS: See more shots of the Bears in action.

Five of HoCo’s eight runs came in the first inning. Senior catcher Eli Stephens started the night with a big RBI double, followed by another RBI ball from junior shortstop Ethan Buffone and a base-clearing line drive from junior infielder Troy Carpenter to put the Bears up 4-0.

That drove the Blue Devils’ starter off of the mound, but Carpenter added another run to the tally as he stole home plate on a missed pickoff attempt.

HoCo scored one in the second, third and fourth innings to mark the final score 8-0. Sometimes it’s really as simple as facing a different pitcher, according to Hopkins.

“We got the lefty out of there from game one, I mean he did a fantastic job of mixing the change-up and the fastball,” Hopkins said. “When you’ve got a guy in high school that can mix speeds and change locations it’s really hard to hit. We saw righties [in game two], felt a little more comfortable with it and we did a good job on capitalizing on what they gave us.”

Junior pitcher Tucker Hale threw 6.1 innings and only allowed three hits to go with five strikeouts and three walks.

The Bears’ defense did a great job of backing him up, highlighted by a 6-4-3 double play in the top of the fourth inning to wipe the bases.

Tift County 1, Houston County 0

For only the second time this season, the Houston County Bears (16-5, 9-2 Region 1-6A) were shut out in game one against the Tift County Blue Devils (16-2, 10-1 Region).

UGA commit John Davis and a stingy Blue Devils’ defense prevented the Bears from even getting on base, save a hit apiece from senior catcher Eli Stephens and junior infielder Troy Carpenter.

Much of the Bears’ contact gave Tift County balls in the air, and on the rare occasion there was a ground ball it was promptly zipped around for an out.

“We needed to do a better job of letting the ball get deeper and hit it in the backside. I thought we were trying to spin off of the ball too much,” HoCo coach Matt Hopkins said. “When you do that you’re either going to dip under it or you’re going to pull over it, and so we’re not able to hit through it.”

Tift County took what turned out to be the final lead in the top of the second with two two-out hits. The first a grounder to shortstop, the next a RBI double to right field.

They were well placed balls, and according to Hopkins there wasn’t much else the defense could do even in hindsight.

“[It was a] really weak ground ball that was hit and we thought we should have picked it, but it was a play that’s borderline because it’s in the dirt,” Hopkins said. “Next pitch was located on the outside corner and their guy was waiting on a fastball and did a good job getting around it and burning us…It’s just baseball. There wasn’t anything that we felt [was] wrong with the pitch or the play, they just found a way to score a run and we couldn’t.”

UP NEXT

The Bears will be out of town at a tournament on Thursday, April 4 and Friday, April 5 this week to play Houston, Cartersville and Locust Grove before gearing up for their final region series against Lee County the week after.