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Mmxeian dßailg The Home Journal’s SANDLOT ON DECK Today Major League Baseball ■ Atlanta at Cincinnati, 1:20 p.m., FOX BRAVES CORNER PIRATES 3, BRAVES 2 Joe Randa has played many roles in his career. Being a bench player on one of the worst teams in the majors hasn’t been one of them until now. Shawn Chacon limited Atlanta to one run in five innings to win his Pittsburgh debut, pitching the Pirates to a 3-2 victory Thursday and preventing a sweep by the Braves. Randa, making a spot start, drove in two of the three runs against Braves starter Tim Hudson with a double in the first inning and a single in the sixth. Randa starts an average of about once every four days, but is 16-for-36 (.444) in his last nine starts. Chacon (1-0), a 19-1 loser to Cleveland in his last start for the Yankees on July 4, felt the same way in his first start for his new team. He gave up Andruw Jones’ RBI double in the first but allowed only one more hit before being lifted after throwing 79 pitches on a 90-degree day. Hudson (8-10) lost his sixth in eight decisions for the Braves, who were denied a three-game sweep that would have been their first against the Pirates since June 1-3,2001, in Pittsburgh. - The Associated Press IN BRIEF CGSA begins iate registration Late registration for the Central Georgia Soccer Association began today. All children ages 4-19 are invited by the organiza tion to, according to a release, “join the ‘spectacular’ game of soccer." Online registration can be found at www.gasoccer.org/cgsa or those interested can go by their office during the hours of 11 a.m.- 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Contact CGSA Association Administrator Bette Dillon, at 478-987-2455 or email her at playcgsa@alltel.net for further information. Landings sets dates for Linkup2golf program The Landings golf course will be holding its Linkup2golf program for new and re-newing golfers Tuesday-Aug. 31. The group will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-10:30 a.m. for early classes and 5:30-6:30 p.m. for evening classes. The cost is $129 which includes clubs. Call Bill Goggin at 923-5222. Or e-mail him at Bill@goggingolf.com. Check out website at www.goggingolf.com. Rec volleyball signups set; cheerleaders needed The Warner Robins Recreation Department will begin registra tion for volleyball Aug. 14. It will run from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and is open to girls and boys 13-18. The age control date is Aug. 31. A birth certificate is required upon registration unless it is cur rently on file. Participants must also have the required fee at the time of registration. Registration fees are as follows: $25 for city of Warner Robins residents, SSO for county residents and SBS for out of county residents. Call 929- 1916 for more information. WR Rec Department sets softball signup dates The Warner Robins Recreation Department will hold team regis tration for the 2006 Fall Softball League, Monday and Tuesday. Teams may register between the hours of 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the department, which is located at 800 Watson Blvd. They will regis ter the first 28 coed teams and the first 21 men’s teams. League play will be Monday through Thursday for a 12-game season. The entry fee is $348 per team. The fall season will open Sept. 5. Contact the department at 929- 1916 for any questions. SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2006 Buckarama set to make its annual visit to Peppy Special to the Journal The Georgia Wildlife Federation will soon open the doors for the 23rd annual Buckarama shows. If you’re a hunter, ask yourself: Since the Buckarama is about to start, can hunting season be far behind? The Buckaramas, Georgia’s larg est hunting shows, are, accord ing to a release, “the go-to events again this year for hunters from across Georgia and throughout the Southeast as they prepare for this season’s venture to the forests. “Hunters and other sportsmen and women throng to Buckarama,” p&m ITT Il■l■ 11 A 1 W[t hPI tel ngti IlwEMn. &8H ? Jk # mfjjsk NM fmRB a BBk wri*H vt The Middle Georgia Shockers, a travel fast-pitch team with its fair share of Houston County players, huddle up during the ISA World Series recently. Fast>pitch squad wins World Series title By DON MONCRIEF Journal Sports Editor The Middle Georgia Shockers made a believer out of head coach Ricky Schnable. Jw? B. IBJj■ f' xl jjUfr 'jul* i Kayla McNiel heads home to score in the final game as Kristen Beattie heads to third. Sports AT A GLANCE What: Georgia Wildlife Federation's 23rd annual Buckarama When: Aug. 18-20 Where: Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter the release reads, “to check out and stock up on everything from camo, ammo and other gear, to the new est in technology to information on outfitters and guides. White tailed deer are the number one game spe- SHOCKING! The team, several of the players being from Houston County - quite a few rep resenting Warner Robins High School alone - recent ly won the Independent Softball Association’s World Series championship at Lexington S.C., and for 18- and-unders. It wasn’t that Schnable was an unbeliever mind you - even though the team kept coming up with sec ond or third-place finishes at tourneys along the way to the WS. He had plenty of faith. It’s just that his cup didn’t actually run over until the third game for seeding of the World Series. It was a 0-0 tie to the Heartland Craze from Lakeland, Fla. But, “All of a sudden they played fantastic defense,” he said. “Actually, the first two games (a 3-3 tie with the Tampa Mayhem from Seffner, Fla., and a 1-1 tie with the Twilight Twisters from Winter Haven, Fla.) the defense was horrible. “(The entire season - beginning around March - up until that point) we just didn’t have focus. Somebody would miss a sign or some body would miss a signal - just a mental lapse. We couldn’t quite get over the hump. “But in that third pool game, I started believing then. It was the most com plete team effort in a ball game I’ve ever seen.” Still, with nothing but ties to their credit, the Shockers ended up seeded fifth. Not that it mattered. They could have been seeded 100th at that point, however. Submitted cies in Georgia; with a healthy deer heard and abundant habitat, our state is the deer hunting capitol of the Southeast.” But, the release continues, there’s more at the two Buckaramas held every year, one in Atlanta and one in Perry. Conservation Comer is a sig nature feature of the Buckaramas, showcasing critical information about conservation and fostering ethical hunting practices. “Adults and young people alike have a great opportunity to learn about and see at first hand Georgia’s diversity of wildlife and hear about the effort to ensure the habitat They faced off against Jax Fusion from Jacksonville, Fla., and beat them soundly 12-0. (Note; They weren’t all from Florida, although it was close. The only other out of state team in that division - the “B” division, and there was also an “A” division - was Dahlonega.) “I think we had maybe four hits in the first game, five in the second and one in the third,” Schnable said. “But in the third, all of a sudden they busted loose.” Next, they went head-to head with the No. 1 seed Manatee Twisters from Bradenton, Fla. They had gotten a bye in the first round. In the second, they were saddled with a loss because the Shockers beat them 3-0 - thanks in part, Schnable said, to (Demonette) Sam Snipes robbing a hitter of a home run - catching it over the fence. “It was just plays like that the whole weekend,” Schnable said. That win put them in a rematch against Heartland, a game they won cour tesy of (Demonette) See TITLE, page 2B conservation that will ensure our wildlife doesn’t disappear forever. Experts, displays and information from state and federal wildlife agen cies and a diverse group of nonprofit conservation organizations will be on hand to answer questions and talk about wildlife issues.” The Buckaramas directly sup port the mission of hunters and the Georgia Wildlife Federation in sustaining critical natural resources and its dependent wildlife. Show visitors can get information about the Camo Coalition - the most effective voice for See VISIT, page 8B Oh broiber... In Ini; Daw# hast wia ever Well, just got back from a family visit on the Georgia coast, and let me tell you about my adorable little brother-in law. (Actually, he’s 6-foot -3 and about four years old than me.) I have to give my older (but shorter) sister credit. She brought your prototypical die-hard fanatical Georgia Bulldog fan into the family. It makes it easy to pick out Christmas presents and con versation topics to pass the time away. So while we were picnick ing and strolling along the beautiful barrier island known as Cumberland (more on that later), we dis cussed last year’s debacle in the Sugar Bowl and Mark Richt’s inability to lead Georgia past the top rivals Auburn and Florida. I also decided to hit him up on the topics of a certain trivia contest about Bulldog football I was unsuccessful in getting anyone in Houston County to partake. I’m not about to give out the actual questions here. You had your chance. But in this little dialogue with the bro-in-law, an interest ing topic of debate sprang forth. I said, “Arguably, the big gest win in Georgia foot ball history ...” Now, I had my choice while he had a few others. Therein lies the point of debate: What are the criteria that make a par ticular win the biggest ever for a sports team? One would be an upset. This family member - we’ll call him Steve from here on out because that’s his name, though my sister likes to say Stephen - pointed out the win over No. 2 Texas in the 1984 Cotton Bowl and the upset of Florida in 1997 which ended a long suffering drought for all of us against Steve Spurrier’s Gators. Another characteris tic would be a comeback. The Bulldogs have had their share of those, like the 2000 Outback Bowl See BROWN, page 3B Submitted 'Therein lies the point ol debate: What are the criteria that make a particular win the biggest ever for a sports team?' SECTION B m\ Matthew Brown HDJ Sports Writer