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EH Sports ■ n IV A LIST AND SELL WITH NEIGHBORS! Joel Neighbors Jane Neighbors 770.894.7970 770.893.7653 August 18, &More f#qj Jnite,. . ountry' REALTORS (B This week in Sports History Page 3B Talking Rock Realty 0MLS 1=1 NEMLS GEORGIAN/! LS L ESTATE SERVICES TALKINGROCKREALTY.COM • 678.454 Nettes open season showing at Rumble The PHS Varsity Nettes are back in action. The sea son opener against Cass High School was cancelled on Au gust 5 due to the weather. It has been rescheduled as a double header at Dunn Field on September 1. Last week, they traveled to 7A Peachtree Ridge High School to play in the Rumble at the Ridge Tournament. The Nettes played tough competition in Peachtree Ridge High School (7A) and Chattahoochee High School (5A). In Game 1 on Thurs day, the Nettes played PRHS. Emma Black was in the cir cle for the Nettes. Hannah Grizzle went 2-for 3 at the plate to lead the Nettes in hits. In Game 2 on Thursday, Cheyenne Coleman was the starting pitcher for PHS. Hannah Grizzle, Skylar Weaver, Hannah Parks, and Emma Black each collected a hit. On Friday, the Nettes traveled back to PRHS for Day 2 of Rumble at the Ridge. PHS Nettes defeated the Lions 6-5 with a walk-off single. Lexi Grizzle was the starting pitcher. Emma Black entered the game to pitch in the 4th inning. She surren dered one run on three hits over four innings. She struck out one Lion and walked one Lion. Emma Black, Ally Long, and Cady Erickson led the offense with two hits. The Nettes did not com mit a single error in the field. The Nettes won 6-5. In Game 2 on Friday, the Nettes had a rematch with Chatta hoochee High School. The Nettes fell just short on the final play in extra innings. The Nettes and Cougars went 9 innings. Emma Black started the game. She al lowed 6 hits and 4 runs over five innings. Cheyenne Cole man entered the game in the 6th inning. Coleman allowed 5 hits and 3 runs while strik ing out one Cougar. She had zero walks. Black led PHS with two hits in three at bats. The Nettes start region play next week. They play White County on Tuesday at Dunn Field at 6:30 and West Hall on Thursday at Dunn Field at 6. PHS Volleyball reaches tournament semifinals, falls to Sonoraville as season gets underway On Thursday, August 11, JV and varsity volleyball traveled to Johnson High School. Both teams came home with two wins over Johnson and Franklin County. Lilly Wendt led the varsity with five aces between the two matches and Amber Bragg led the attacks with five kills. On Saturday the C-team traveled to Gainesville for a 9th-grade tournament. They defeated three of the four teams they played. Coach Callahan is proud of how hard they played and is excited for the rest of the sea son. The varsity attended a tournament in Adairsville on Saturday. The girls played hard and made it to the semi-finals, but fell short to Sonoraville in a tough, well-fought match. Dragons make final preparations with scrimmage QB Sam Stretcher throws to Miguel Salto. Mason Powell fights for yardage. photos/Robin Dunn The Dragons completed their pre-sea son Friday at home with a scrimmage with Rockmart. PHS opens the season this Friday, August 19 in Sonoraville. The Dragons defensive line - L-R Kaleb Nicholson, John Thompson, Hayden Roland. Fowler wins first Virgil Chastain Memorial Bubba Fowler of Ball Ground won the Arrowhead Golf Club invitational tour nament last weekend, edging out Dalton Bruce in a three- hole playoff. The playoff fol lowed two days of golf where both Fowler and Bruce had finished with identical 147 scores. Forty-eight golfers com peted in the two day tourna ment at the local golf club, which was renamed this year in honor of Virgil Chastain, who passed away in the past year. Club President Marty Callahan said Chastain was a long-time member who was well-liked and had won tour naments so the club mem bers felt it was fitting to name their yearly invita tional in his honor. At right, Virgil’s son Matt Chastain, right, congratu lates Fowler on his first place finish. with strong at the Ridge Above, shortstop Hannah Grizzle playing tough de fense. She went 2-for 3 at the plate to lead the Nettes in hits in game 1 of the Rumble at the Ridge. Softball season outlook with Head Coach Sarah Pinson How do you think the move to Region 7-AAA will im pact the potential success of your team? “I think the move to Re gion 7-AAA will be benefi cial to the softball program. We are making the move from one tough region to an other tough region, but the average travel distance and time has dramatically de creased.” Which teams in Region 7- AAA are on your radar as solid programs to compete against in region? What is it about them that gets your attention? “Our new region is very competitive in softball. Our next game will always be our most important game. Wesleyan won a state championship last year and has a majority of their team returning. Dawson made a trip to the Elite Eight last year as well. White County has a solid program. Gilmer, our school rival, has returned to our region. Lumpkin, and West Hall are well-coached teams.” Who are your returning seniors? What are you counting on them to pro vide for your program? “Emma Black, Hope Buchanan, and Hannah Griz zle are our returning players that will be seniors this sea son. Cadence Doshier-Erick- son has joined our program this season as a senior. All four of these ladies stepped Nettes Softball Coach Sarah Pinson up as leaders thus far this sea son and I’m looking forward to seeing how far they can take us.” What strides have been made by the team or indi viduals in the off season that you believe will show up this season? “The Nettes have been working hard in condition ing, making sure to get the small things right, and bring ing 200% to every play everyday.” Where do you want to see your program improve this season or build on from last season? “We are working hard to make a deep run in state. We have a talented group of play ers that can make that happen if they keep pushing them selves, working as a team, and putting the team first.” Continued Softball on 8B Racing Across America Race Recap - Federated Auto Parts 400 By Alex Korowotny Racing Sports Correspondent This weekend, NASCAR was back in Virginia, racing at the Richmond Raceway. This was the second time this year NASCAR has raced at Richmond. The race back in the spring at Richmond was n’t bad but not really that good. It was mostly saved due to the varying strategies in that race which led to an exciting finish of Hamlin passing Byron with 4 to go and holding off Harvick to win. So now that NASCAR was back at Richmond, was a good race this time around or was it as bad as Martinsville earlier this year? Well, it was definitely good for one driver at least. The race started at 3:20 p.m. with Larson on pole. He would lose the lead, how ever, on the first lap to Chas tain. The 1st caution came out on lap 5 for Reddick spinning from 22nd after contact from Ty Dillon in turn 4. The race resumed on lap 8 and remained green the rest of the way with Chas tain leading the whole stage and winning it and barely holding off his rival Hamlin, who was closing in on him fast at the end of the stage. Stage 2 officially started on lap 79 with Chastain in the lead after winning the race off pit road. 2 laps later, Logano would pass Chastain for the lead and would end up leading most of the race. Stage 2 would go caution- See Racing on 3B Sports Fanatic By Tommy Gartrell Columnist Too Many Stats As a baseball fan and es pecially a casual follower of America’s national pastime, do all these “ad vanced statistics” and “fresh” terminologies baffle you? In a recent conversa tion with a friend from my parents’ generation, he asked, “what do all of these terms mean any more?” My love affair with this game began when basic information like batting average, hits, runs, homers and runs batted in told you every thing of importance about a particular batter. Addi tionally, the number of wins, losses, walks, strikeouts, earned run av erage (the average num ber of runs surrendered in nine innings) and perhaps saves gave you a solid in dication of a pitcher’s ability. Around 20 years ago, Billy Beane general man ager of the Oakland A's, one day had an epiphany: Baseball's conventional wisdom is all wrong. Faced with a tight budget, Beane must reinvent his team by outsmarting the richer ball clubs. Joining forces with Ivy League graduate Peter Brand, he recruits bargain-bin play ers whom the scouts have labeled as flawed yet have game-winning po tential. With the success of the 2002 Oakland club, the whole baseball world jumped onto this statisti cal system called saber- metrics. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society of American Baseball Research founded in 1971. The term "sabermetrics" was coined by baseball writer, statistician and historian Billy James who is one of its pioneers and is often considered its most prominent advocate and public face. The use of different metrics proved valuable. For example: On-base percentage (OBP) takes batting average a step far ther. It is the ratio of times on base via hit, walk and hit by pitch to their number of plate ap pearances. A player with a .400 OBP gets on base 40 percent of the time. Another issue with the traditional measure of the batting average is that it does not distinguish be tween hits (singles, dou bles, triples, and home runs) and gives each hit equal value. Thus, a measure that differenti ates among these four hit outcomes, the slugging percentage was created. To calculate the slugging percentage, the total num ber of bases of all hits is divided by the total num ber of times at bat. These two percentages are combined to get On- base plus Slugging (OBP). We often see some thing called a “slash line” See Gartrell on 3B