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Tfiis week in Sports History Page 3B
PHS Girls Tennis advancing in region play
Lowe, Kirchoff
advance in singles;
Crowe, Stanfield
advance in doubles
It is region week for the
Pickens Tennis team as they
compete for a region title and
a trip to the state tournament.
Matches began on Monday at
the Lakeshore tennis com
plex in Dalton.
The girls’ team, coming
off a strong regular season,
defeated NW in the first
round to advance to the re
gion semifinals against #1
seed Central Carrollton.
Isabella Lowe and Mck-
ayla Kirchoff won in singles.
Courtney Crowe and Jaiden
Stanfield won in doubles to
get the three required wins to
advance.
In the semifinal matchup,
Central Carrollton was the
first to win three of the five
matches, dropping Pickens to
the consolation bracket to
play for seeding for the state
tournament.
The girls played Heritage
on Tuesday, April 12th to de-
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The Pickens High girls’ tennis team after bringing home a victory in round one of the region playoffs.
termine if they will be the three or four
seed from Region 7-AAAA for the state
tournament.
Boys ’ team wraps up season
The PHS Dragons concluded their season with a round one loss
to the Heritage boys team.
Diamond Dragons 3-0
against Raiders
Catcher Tyler Payne fires to Trace Ledbetter first
for the out.
PHS sweeps
SE Whitfield
The Dragons used spring
break to get back on track in
region play with a 3-0 sweep
of the Southeast Whitfield
Raiders. A 13-1 win in game
one got things started on the
right foot. Pickens had 14
hits in the game with Trace
Ledbetter, Anthony Anti-
nozzi, Harlan Will, and Trey
Payne each having multiple
hit games. Ethan Gemberling
went yard in the 6th inning.
Cade Sutton earned the win
on the mound, allowing no
runs and two hits while strik
ing out five in four and two
thirds innings. Tate Hales
through 1 Vi innings of relief.
In game two, Pickens
snagged a late lead and de
feated Southeast Whitfield
County 4-3. The game was
tied at three with the Dragons
batting in the bottom of the
sixth when Sam Hammontree
singled on the first pitch of
the at bat, scoring one run.
Trey Payne started on the
mound for the Dragons and
went three innings, allowing
four hits and three runs while
striking out four. Tate Hales
went 2-for-2 at the plate to
lead Pickens Varsity Dragons
in hits. Pickens was sure
handed in the tight game with
no errors.
Game 3 was a 15-0 run
rule blowout for the Dragons.
James Tilley threw three per
fect innings on the mound to
earn the win. Colby James
and Tyler Payne led the way
with two hits, while Cade
Sutton and Evan Giddens
also contributed with dou
bles.
photos/Robin Dunn
PHS baserunner Slade Mooney sliding into third.
Evan Giddens #6, second baseman, catches ground ball
and flips it to SS Cason Cannon for the out.
Racing Across America
Race Recap? Blue Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400
By Alex Korowotny
Racing Sports
Correspondent
Last Saturday night it was the
first night race of the season,
the Cup series was at Mar
tinsville speedway, the sec
ond race of the short-track
swing.
Martinsville is a track
well known for beating and
banging and tempers. This
race, however, was not like
that whatsoever.
The race started at 8:45
p.m. due to inclement
weather delaying it an hour
with Georgia’s own Chase
Elliott starting on the pole.
Chase led the entire first 2
stages and won them both.
His teammate William
Byron was able to get up to
him but could not pass him
due to it being hard to pass in
this race plus all of the lap
traffic they were going by
and putting laps down. The
only really noteworthy thing
to mention in the first two
stages is that Joe Gibbs Rac
ing was really off in this race:
Hamlin went a lap down just
before the end of stage one
and was running below the
Top 20 while his other team
mates Kyle Busch and Mar
tin Truex Jr. were running
below the top 15 in both
stages.
At the end of stage 2 when
everyone on the lead lap
came in to pit, Byron took the
lead from Elliott by having a
faster stop than him which
was the first time all evening
someone else led. Byron con
tinued to lead and wasn’t able
to be passed by Chase, he
was able to get up to him but
couldn’t pass him and then
fell back a few spots before
pit stops happened again.
The restart happened on
lap 321 with Byron still in
the lead and he continued to
lead and looked to have the
race win on lock before a
caution came out with 6 laps
to go for Todd Gilliland los
ing a tire and getting into the
wall. On the restart, Byron
was able to clear Logano,
who was the driver restarting
next to him on the front row,
off turn 2 and he held on to
win the 2022 Blue-Emu
Maximum Pain Relief 400 at
Martinsville.
This was Byron’s second
win of the season and the
first time in his cup career he
has won two races in a sea
son. This race proved that
Byron may very likely be a
championship contender this
season, because he is also the
first driver that has won more
than once this season and has
been competitive in just
about every other race this
season. As long as Byron
keeps this up, he will defi
nitely be a championship
contender this season and po
tentially for years to come.
In terms of the race how
ever, this was without ques
tion the worst race so far this
season. Every race so far this
season has been either amaz
ing or decent, but this race
was shall we say - dull. It was
very hard to pass in this race
and while there were a good
number of drivers being up
close to each other and trying
to pass the car in front of
them, there wasn’t much
passing since it was very
hard to do with the different
aerodynamics of these new
Gen 7 cars. This definitely
makes a race less exciting
when there’s not much move
ment/lead changes in the
field due to drivers having lit
tle opportunity to pass. In
fact, there were multiple in
stances all evening of drivers
being close to each other but
not being able to execute a
pass. For example, in stage 2
Austin Dillon (in ninth) for
many laps but he never could
get around him.
So overall, this was the
first dud of the season, but
we are at least going to Bris
tol dirt track next week,
which could make up for this
race because even though it’s
also a short track, the dirt sur
face may make the difference
in it being exciting instead of
really boring.
Next week - Food City
Dirt Night Race at Bristol
Motor Speedway Dirt
Technical Advisor - Scott
Korowotny
Larson was right behind
Sports
Fanatic
By
Tommy
Gartrell
Columnist
New
Master
A traditional rite of
spring occurred in
Augusta, Georgia
over the past week
end: the Masters Golf
Tournament. Record
audiences tuned their
televisions for the
event perhaps for the
return of five time
champion Tiger
Woods, but the audi
ence witnessed a new
champion earn the
coveted green jacket.
Fourteen months
removed from a near
fatal car accident
which left Woods
with multiple leg
fractures, he returned
to Augusta where he
dominated the field
25 years ago as a
fresh faced 21-year-
old. Late word of his
intention to play in
the tournament reen
ergized fans and
drove tv ratings to the
highest level in four
years.
Woods opened the
tournament at -1
through the first day
of play and played
well enough to “make
the cut” on Friday,
but he faded through
the weekend and fin
ished 47th with a
score of+13. His no
ticeable limp became
more noticeable with
each round. The old
champ finished
though.
Quite an accom
plishment for a man
who nearly lost a leg
just over a year ago...
Although golf fans
both casual like my
self and serious de
cided to watch the
Masters because of
Tiger, we were intro
duced to one of the
most exciting young
players since Woods.
The eventual tourna
ment champion Scott
Schefiler’s win is his
fourth top finish in his
last six tournaments.
The tall 25-year-
old Texan jumped
from a virtual un
known to the top
rated golfer in the
world and Masters
Champion in a month
and a half. He won
the Phoenix Open
during Valentines
weekend and since
then, he has emerged
as the hottest name in
golf and the new
Master.