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PAGE 2B PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 30. 2010
Continued from IB
PHS Softball
with Amber Pritchett, Mindi
Mullins and Salone Brown
recording 2 hits each for the
game.
The seniors honored during
the game were Amber Pritchett,
Madison Eubanks, Kelli John
son, Lauren Hardin, Zoe Wegen-
stein and Hailey Groover. The
senior players’ numbers were
marked on the softball field and
the underclassmen sang the na
tional anthem for the seniors to
get the game started.
On Saturday, Sept. 25, the
’Nettes competed in an invita
tional tournament in Commerce,
Ga. The ’Nettes rolled-over all
competition, going 5-0 for the
tourney. The ’Nettes scored a
total of 51 runs in the games
combined, and allowed only 3
runs by all opponents faced for
the day.
Four of the five tournament
games were shut-outs, with mul
tiple games being shortened be
cause of the “run rule” which
stops a game if one team is ahead
of the other by too big of a mar
gin to come back.
The first game of the day Sat
urday was against Social Circle.
’Nettes recorded an 8-0 victory
in a game highlighted by out
standing batting and defensive
play. Senior Kellie Johnson hit a
home run and also recorded a hit
and an RBI for the game. Junior
Salone Brown picked up two
hits. Freshman Pitcher Savannah
Buck pitched a shutout recording
7 strike-outs for the game.
The ‘Nettes moved on to the
second tournament game on Sat
urday and faced tournament host
Commerce. Pickens again domi
nated with excellent hitting and
defensive play to go on to a 7-0
win. Freshman Pitcher Savannah
Buck and Junior Salone Brown
each recorded two hits for the
game, with Pitcher Buck record
ing a win on the mound with 7
strike-outs. Sophomore Pitcher
Hillary Wheeler closed out the
winning game on the moimd dur
ing the last inning of play.
The third game of tournament
play showed Pickens its
strongest competition of the day.
The ’Nettes faced Franklin
County and came out on top with
a 10-3 victory. During the first
two innings of play, the ’Nettes
trailed 0-2, but in the third inning
Pickens came roaring back, ex
ploding for 6 runs. The ’Nettes
scored 4 more runs in the fourth
inning to clinch the victory.
Junior Salone Brown and
Senior Kelli Johnson each
recorded 2 hits for the game. Jun
ior Mindi Mullins hit a triple
while Salone Brown and Junior
Kristen Gamer each earned dou
bles. Freshman Pitcher Savannah
Buck recorded the win on the
mound, allowing only 4 hits and
earning 5 strikeouts.
In the fourth game of the tour
nament, the ’Nettes faced Towns
County and soundly defeated
their opponent 14-0. In the first
inning, Pickens jumped out to an
early lead of 9-0. During the
game, the ‘Nettes’ bats were on
fire, with Junior Mindi Mullins
recording an inside-the-park
home run. Mullins went on to
record 4 RBIs and 1 triple for the
game.
Salone Brown earned a single
and double and Amber Pritchett
earned a triple and 3 RBIs. Lau
ren Hardin also recorded three
RBIs for the game. Sophomore
pitcher Hilary Wheeler marked
her first varsity softball win by
pitching a complete game and
giving up only 1 hit and record
ing 4 strikeouts.
With the ’Nettes’ fourth
straight victory for the day, Pick
ens was assured a place in the
Championship Round of Satur
day’s tournament.
For the championship, Pick
ens again played tourney host
Commerce and went on to win
12-0 in four innings. Senior Kelli
Johnson was perfect at the plate
going 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs. Madi
son Eubanks registered 2 hits
with 3 RBIs. Pitcher Savannah
Buck pitched a no-hitter for the
’Nettes, leading the team to the
run-rule victory.
Players on the PHS varsity
girls fastpitch softball team in
clude seniors Kelli Johnson,
Madison Eubanks, Megan
Dixon, Zoe Wegenstein, Hailey
Groover, Lauren Hardin and
Amber Pritchett. Juniors on the
team include Salone Brown,
Mindi Mullins, Kristen Garner,
Emily Fields and Elbe Fields.
Sophomores include Kennedy
McTaggart, Daniell Goss and
Hillary Wheeler. Freshmen in
clude Savannah Buck.
North Georgia Falcons
vs. Towns County Indians
By Gordon Thigpen
The North Georgia Falcons
junior team showed great heart
and grit in the face of incredible
odds in a epic game last Friday.
To begin with, the Falcons,
minus four players, traveled to
Towns County to play the Towns
County Indians. This home
school vs. public school football
game always promises to be a
good match-up.
The Falcons came out flat on
their first possession as they
muffed the snap on a punt to turn
the ball over on downs. To add to
the Falcons trouble, QB/S Tevon
Valdez was taken out of the game
with a broken arm. Towns
County took advantage and
scored. The two point conversion
was no good. The Falcons finally
broke through in second quarter
with a good punt return from
Pickens resident, Dylan Cason
into Towns territory. FB/LB and
Pickens County resident, Cody
Ricketts put the Falcons on the
board with a fullback dive. Rick
etts muscled his way into the end
zone for the two-point conver
sion. At halftime the score was 8-
6 Falcons.
Towns fumbled the ball on
their 23 yard line to open up the
third quarter. Cody Ricketts re
covered it. Ricketts then scored
again on a 15-yard run. The con
version was no good. Towns an
swered on a kick return for a
touchdown on the next play. The
conversion was good. The score
was 14-14. With under a minute
in the fourth, the Falcons punted
the ball. With only a few seconds
left, Cody Ricketts came up with
two sacks to help ice the game.
Because of time constraints,
the game ended in a 14-14 tie.
The Falcons were led by a break
out performance by Cody Rick
etts on both sides of the ball. The
results might have been different
if not for his rising to the chal
lenge. The Falcons return to con
ference play when they take on
rival Georgia Force next Friday
and try to retain their undefeated
status.
PHS Basketball
Fall Warmup League
Back Row (l-r):Ass. Coach John Curry, Coach Greg Jones, Spencer Jones, Mo O’Bryant,
Wesley Easterwood, Sam Crawford. Front Row: Ryan Curry, Aries Johnson, Ass. Coach Phil
Mullinax. Not pictured Josh Nichios. The League’s tournament will be this Saturday.
SEC Football
Tough times for Dawgs
By Don Bryant
After beginning regular sea
son play with a win, the Georgia
Bulldogs have fallen on hard
times as they lost their third
straight game and third SEC
game in a row last weekend as
they fell 24-12 to the Mississippi
State Bulldogs for the first time
since 1974.
The loss was the third in a
row for Georgia, which has lost
three straight games in the same
season for the first time since
1990 imder head coach Ray Goff
when the Dawgs lost their last
four.
Georgia is currently 1-3 over
all and is now 3-8 in its most re
cent games against every other
league member with wins over
just Auburn, Ole Miss and Van
derbilt.
Georgia, which made three
appearances in the SEC title
game from 2002 to 2005, has
lost seven of its last nine SEC
games. The Bulldogs played
their fourth and final game with
out junior receiver A.J. Green
who was completing a four-
game NCAA suspension. During
these four games, Kris Durham
and Tavarres King continued to
put together solid performances
Durham had the first 100-
yard game of his career against
Arkansas. In the game on Satur
day against Mississippi State,
Durham had another 100-yard
receiving game. Both Durham
and King entered the game on
Saturday as Georgia’s leading re
ceivers and are popular targets
for QB Aaron Murray.
Durham had four catches for
64 yards before leaving Satur
day’s game with a neck injury.
King had a 37-yard reception in
the first quarter and a 40-yard
score with 1:27 to play. King
ranked fourth on the team last
season with 18 catches for 377
yards and a touchdown.
Following this loss, the flood
gates will probably open for the
critics of Coach Richt and offen
sive coordinator Mike Bobo as
the hopes of contending for an
SEC title this year are all but
gone.
Georgia travels to Colorado
on Oct. 2 before taking on Ten
nessee on Oct. 9. With the return
of A. J. Green, hopefully, the
Dawgs can find some offensive
rhythm.
Racing Views
To cheat or not to cheat?
By Jumper Cable Man
What a change a couple of
days makes! On Tuesday of last
week, after this column had al
ready gone to press, we learned
that Clint Bowyer was being ac
cused of cheating after he won
the New Hampshire Motor
Speedway in Loudon, N.H. dur
ing the first week of “The
Chase.” Apparently the race car
was legal during practice and
qualifying but was illegal after
the feature event on Sunday af
ternoon.
According to Richard Chil
dress explaining the problem
with the Bowyer car, built and
owned by Richard Childress
Racing (RCR), “We feel certain
that the cause of the car being
out of tolerance by sixty-thou
sandths of an inch - less than
one-sixteenth of an inch - hap
pened as a result of the wrecker
hitting the rear bumper when it
pushed the car into the winner’s
circle.“
Then Childress went on to
say, “The rear bumper was also
hit on the cool-down lap by other
drivers congratulating Clint on
his victory. That’s the only logi
cal way that the left-rear of the
car was found to be high at the
tech center. We will appeal
NASCAR’s ruling and take it all
the way to the NASCAR com
missioner for a final ruling, if
need be.”
The penalty for the infraction
is one to get the attention of all
the other teams. Bowyer and
Childress will be fined 150
championship points and the
crew chief, Shane Wilson, and
car chief, Chad Haney, have
been suspended for six races. In
addition Wilson and Haney were
fined $150,000 each. Ouch!
The points deduction put
Bowyer in the 12th position of
the 12 “Chase” contenders.
What will this do to the champi
onship hopes of the Bowyer
team? On Sunday at the Monster
Mile Speedway, Dover Interna
tional Speedway, Dover, De., the
Bowyer team finished the race
two laps down and in twenty-
fifth position. He is now 235
points behind Denny Hamlin the
leader. Jimmy Johnson returned
to his former form during this
race and won, placing him only
35 points behind Hamlin and in
second place.
Looking at “The Chase” from
this point it appears that
NASCAR would like to have
someone other than a RCR
driver win the points champi
onship. In the beginning it
looked like they were stacking
the deck for Hamlin but it may
be that the deck is stacked
against RCR and not for any of
the other teams.
It looked for a bit early on
that Tony Stewart would make
this another championship year
for his team but after two weeks
Stewart is moving backwards
and not toward another champi
onship. At this point he can be
counted out of “The Chase.”
There doesn’t appear to be any
way he can move back into con
tention.
The Jimmy Johnson team got
back on track this past weekend
and looks good for five champi
onships in a row. As the Johnson
teams knows, “The Chase” is as
much mental as it is racing. The
pressure gets to many of the
teams when they reach this point
but the Johnson team just seems
to get going when the pressure is
on. Do you remember the “milk
and cookies” motivational talk
Rick Hendrick had with Johnson
and his crew chief, Chad Kanus,
when they lost the championship
the last time? This crew is moti
vated to win championships and
this is just another year and an
other championship to them.
Watch for Johnson and Kanus
to continue to cut into the lead
that Hamlin has and also watch
for Hamlin to have the pressure
start eating away at his points
lead. Hamlin doesn’t stand up
well to pressure in the first place
and the points championship just
highlights his inability to handle
that intense pressure.
Coming up this weekend will
be the Price Chopper (what a
great name) 400 at Kansas
Speedway in Kansas City, Ks.
The track is a mile-and-a-half
track like Atlanta, Charlotte and
others and should be a good test
of who can and can’t win the
championship.
Don’t think you have heard
the last of the cheating scandals
in NASCAR. As our old buddy
Smokey Yunick always said, “If
it (the rule book) don’t say you
can’t then (you could).”
Known as the greatest rule-ben
der in motorsports history he de
scribed slipping past NASCAR
inspectors as “walking under a
snake’s belly.”
On Sunday night - that's right,
Sunday - Green Valley Speed
way in Glencoe, Al. will host a
full racing program. The track
moved their event when Ala
bama moved their football game
to Saturday night. It just goes to
show again that when football
season starts the race tracks have
to pay attention or they will
loose any ground they gained
during the year. On Friday night,
Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold
will host a Southern Regional
Racing Series feature event pay
ing $3,000 to win and a full rac
ing program. Dixie Speedway in
Woodstock and sister track
Rome Speedway in Rome will
take the weekend off before
coming back the following
weekend, Oct. 8-9, with the
Dixie Shootout and the Rome
Shootout. North Georgia Speed
way in Chatsworth will have
their last points race for the year
and a bicycle race for the kids
plus a full racing program. Most
of the other tracks have finished
their seasons or are on a break
until they run their final big race
of the year in either October or
November.
Lanier National Speedway in
Gainesville will be off for a cou
ple of weeks before having a big
night of drifting, dragging and
driving on Oct. 16.
You can get short track results
and short track racing informa
tion from William Barber and
the crew on the radio show
Southern Race Week on WGST
radio at 640 AM and 106.7 FM
but check their Web site for
times as it may move.
Give us your comments, in
formation, questions and correc
tions by mail at P.O. Box 1522,
Woodstock, Ga. 30188-1522 or
by e-mail at
Jcableman@aol.com
Chaos plays tough against Tophatters
Even though they couldn V pull out a win, the Chaos Girls U-16 team played a fantastic
game and more than held their own against the well known Tophatters out of Atlanta. Shown
in photo L-R: Made Lee, Katie Martin, CC Ramirez.
JYSA 8-year-old Dragons
r/f
'm r . . . ■ V’ - I
Thank you to the 8 year old team coaches for volunteering their time to support youth
football in our community and to the parents for their support. Go Dragons!
8 ’S TEAM PICTURE caption:
Cheerleaders 1st row: Coach Sarah Cash, Morgan Krastes, Chloe Newton, Natalie Bavani,
McKenzie Mays, Coach Jessica Bavani 2nd row: Diana Havran, Sarah Bramlett, McKenzy
Cash, Chloe Callan, Brianna Duncan, Casslyn Travis, Jayd Hamby, Reagan Garner, Skylar
Madison, Madison Mays
Football players: 1st row Daniel Tetterton, Blake Williams, Tyler Allen, Cameron Klaric,
Hunter Weaver, Nathan Harris, Matthew Boling, Dylan Robinson, RJ Dell, Peyton Morris;
2nd row Hunter Madison, Matthew Pacas, Austin Chester, Mason Watkins, Eli Altman,
Damion Watkins, Rusty Chapman, Chase Krastes, Austin Coleman; 3rd row Mitch Wheeler,
Parker Bavani, Madison Creamer, Aidan Sanchez, Bailey Cannady, Chad Pacas, Parker
Fuqua, Deion Daniel (not pictured: Austin Chumley)
Coaches: Derek Fuqua, Gary Klaric, Brian Bagwell, Joe Sanchez, Eddie Williams, Casey
Cannady, Bill Coleman