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April 4, 2018
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Section B
★★★★
Baseball
Diamond Doggs win
Dacula series, rout
Habersham Central
By Chris Bridges
Sports Correspondent
A strong pitching performance and some early
offensive punch helped the Winder-Barrow High
School baseball team defeat region foe Dacula
High School Friday and win the three-game
GHSA Region 8-AAAAAA series.
The Diamond Doggs took Friday’s contest 6-0
at the Charles W. Maddox Complex to win the
series and avenge an 11-10 extra-inning loss on
the road two days earlier. In Friday’ game, Brady
House and Austin Lockridge needed just 79 pitch
es to quickly send the Falcons back home.
House was equally effective at the plate, going
3-for-3 with a double, triple and two RBIs. Hunt
er March had a two-run double and finished the
game with three RBIs. Trevor Maddox was 2-for-
3 and Blake Friend was 2-for-3 with a double.
“For us the key is to keep winning series,” said
WBHS coach Brian Smith, whose team opened
up a three-game series with Habersham Central
on Monday with a 13-3 win in Mt. Airy. “We let
a game get away the other day so it was good to
come back and get this one. It was very important
to come out today and be efficient on the mound.
We also played good defense and made contact at
the plate and put pressure on them.”
The sixth-ranked Bulldoggs (12-8, 5-2 region)
jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
House was hit by a pitch and Jackson Melton sin
gled to start the game. Marsh then had a sacrifice
fly followed by an RBI single from Trace Jeffers.
WBHS added three more runs in the second
inning keyed by hits from House and Marsh.
House added another RBI in the bottom of the
fourth.
Sam Darling also contributed at the plate with
a double for the Bulldoggs, who finished with 12
hits.
Dacula meanwhile managed just two hits on the
day. Lockridge recorded four strikeouts.
"Austin has been a great surprise for us,” Smith
said.
In Monday’s game, the Bulldoggs scored six
runs in the top of the fifth and three in the sixth to
pull away for the run rule-shortened victory.
Jeffers went 3-for-4 with a double and four
RBIs, Lance Sikes went 2-for-4 with a double and
two RBIs, Jackson Melton went 2-for-3, and Zack
Smith returned to the diamond from an injury and
had a double with three walks and drove in three.
Winder-Barrow scored four runs in the top of
the first, thanks to consecutive RBI singles by
Jeffers, Melton and Sikes and an RBI groundout
by Blake Friend. The Raiders scored two of their
own in the bottom of the inning and added another
run in the fourth to pull within 4-3.
But Melton and Sikes hit back-to-back doubles
to start the fifth, Maddox singled home a run,
House reached on an error to plate a run, and
Smith hit a two-run double to extend the Bull
doggs’ lead to 8-3. Later in the inning, Jeffers
ripped a two-run double to make it 10-3.
The Bulldoggs’ three runs in the sixth came
on consecutive bases-loaded walks to Smith and
Marsh and a sacrifice fly by Jeffers.
House worked the first five innings on the
mound for the Bulldoggs, allowing the three runs
on three hits while walking four and striking out
four.
Marsh worked a scoreless sixth and struck out
a pair.
The series with Habersham Central was set to
Wednesday in Winder and Friday in Mt. Airy.
The Bulldogg players will be able to focus just on
baseball this week as WBHS is on spring break.
Scott Thompson contributed to this story.
ON TO FIRST
Winder-Barrow third baseman Hunter
Marsh, seen here throwing out a runner in
a game against Dacula on March 26, and the
Bulldoggs took two out of three games from
Dacula last week and won their series opener
Monday against Habersham Central. Winder-
Barrow is now 12-8 overall and 5-2 in GHSA
Region 8-AAAAAA play.
Photo by Scott Thompson
Tough streak continues for AHS
WILDCATS CAN’T ESCAPE FALCONS’ GRASP
Apalachee’s AJ Forbing is tagged out by Dacula first baseman Jojo Lopez on a ground ball during a
GHSA Region 8-AAAAAA contest Monday. The Wildcats lost 8-2. Photo by Scott Thompson
Wildcats drop sixth straight with 8-2 loss to Dacula
“We’re going to give it our best shot
for the next few games and try to
find a way to get it turned around. ”
Allan Bailey
Apalachee baseball coach
three-game GHSA Region around.”
8-AAAAAA series, and
are now in desperate need
of a couple of wins to stay
in state playoff contention.
It was another painful
loss for the Wildcats, who
were coming off a tough
series last week against
Lanier in which they were
swept. Apalachee is now
12-8 overall and 1-6 in
region play.
“The scoreboard is not
really showing the tale of
what’s going on, on the
field,” Apalachee coach
Allan Bailey said after
Monday’s loss. “The frus
trating part is we’re hitting
a lot of balls hard that
are getting caught and we
just can’t seem to get that
bounce that we need to get
us going.
“We’re hanging in there.
We’ve just got to make a
few more defensive plays
and do a few small things
better. For us to win, we
have to be good in all three
phases.”
Dacula (13-9, 3-4)
grabbed a 1-0 lead in the
top of the second inning
when Tyler Benton and
Jackson Smith were both
hit by pitches to start the
frame and Benton later
scored on a flyout by
Henry Helfrich. The Fal
cons added another run
in the fifth on a Tanner
Nichols single off Wild
cats’ starter Hunter Parks
and then tagged Apalachee
for six runs in the sixth to
break it wide open. The
big blows came on a pair
of two-run doubles by
Smith and Nichols.
The Wildcats finally
got on the board in the
bottom of the sixth on a
two-run double by Aus
tin Holbrook that plated
Alec si Lopez and Hunter
Linhart. but Dacula starter
Gage Felton got a pair of
pop ups from Jake Hop
kins and Jarrett Wallace.
Felton worked the first
six innings while Nichols
pitched a perfect seventh
to finish things out.
The Wildcats and Fal
cons were scheduled to
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By Scott Thompson
Sports Editor
The Apalachee baseball
team’s first slump of the
season has come at the
most inopportune of times.
The Wildcats dropped
their sixth straight con
test Monday afternoon,
falling 8-2 at home to
Dacula in the first of a
continue their series
Wednesday in Dacula and
will wrap things up Friday
at 5:55 p.m. at Apalachee.
“We’re battling some
injuries right now, which
many teams are,” Bailey
said.
“We’re going to give
it our best shot for the
next few games and try to
find a way to get it turned