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"WS ggjflM* #? ** *.. si Perry's Ken Sikes throws a strike against Robert E. Lee Wednesday. Sikes struggled but Perry won, 18-12. Lee finally gets going with bat By SHAWN AKERS Sports Editor THOMASTON - Perry High School's Mark Lee thought it was about lime. Mired in an 0-for-8 slump that had brought his season's baiting average to just over .220, Lee was ready to break out. And boy, did he. After striking out in his second al-bal Wednesday, Lee went on a tear, ripping two home runs and single to drive in five runs in Perry's 18-12 victory over Robert E. Lee in Region 4AA game. Lee had gone 0-for-2 in each of his previous three games against Lamar County, Harris County and Manchester. He grounded out in his final at-bal in the game before that against Pike County. "I think changing coaches and all that has hurt me a bit," said Lee, - / i' Irw MraWSSSw r if ffiSSSk*' . : ;'"' , ,' rj^ s 7' - ■# * Conan, Chris Walker gets set to sling Dirty Billy White Into the ropes for a backflip ...Sugar Ray Lloyd was able to make the tag to his partner just before getting hurl Anticipation looms high for the father/son tag-team combination By MARK BLUMEN Staff Writer The evening was a night of an ticipation, as the crowd of approx imately 450 people waited for the match between The Armstrongs, Bob and Brad, against Chic Donovon and Buddy Landed. The crowd did not go away dis appointed as the Armstrongs de feated the team of Donovon and Landed by a disqualification. The Armstrongs from Marietta near Atlanta, have always been crowd favorites. Brad, 27, a graduate of Wheeler High School in 1980, says, 'T'm a wrestler first and as long as I can go into the ring and give the crowd what they want, I will continue to do this." He did just that. In the match, Armstrong was being double teamed continuously, but finally all four men entered the ring and the Armstrongs got Donovon and Lan ded in their patented, sleeper-hold. A wrestler charged the ring and interfered with the match. Finally, many wrestlers charged the ring and it ended up being a melee. "I've wrestled Ric Flair for the world's heavyweight title on several Perry's No. 6 hitler. "Coach (Ronnie) Royston was helping me along. We've got a new coach and he doesn't say too much in practice, so I just started helping myself." In his first at-bat against Rbbert E. Lee, Lee walked. "When he (Rebel pitcher Russ Smith) walked me the first time, I had my eye on him," Lee said. "The second lime, it was a pretty pitch on the outside comer and I tried to pull it, and he struck me out." Then came the unexpected power surge. Lee's first home run went to right ccnlcrficld. Granted, the fence at Matthew Field in Thomaslon is only 290 feel down the rightficld line, but Lee's blast would have gone out of just about any ballpark around. "The next lime up I just decided occasions in the Omni," he said. "And man, with that home crowd cheering you on, it really gets you fired up. It sends chills ad over.” Armstrong continued to say fighting opponents like Jake "the snake" Roberts and Ted Dibiase makes you feel great. Bob Armstrong, 50, a graduate of Sprayberry High School in Ma rietta, has produced three profes sional wrestlers: Scott, Steve, and Brad. His youngest son Brian, is cur rently in the Marine Corp. "Os course, the money is good and I know I have something to of fer, but I got lucky," Armstrong addcd."lf any of the younger kids want to get into the business, you need contacts (connections) or could call CNN where Ted (Turner) just bought Georgia Championship wrestling." Brad Armstrong claims he has been offered to go with the WWF and has recently left the NWA be cause of travel difficulties. "The money is great, no doubt, but I want to be near my family," he said. "I'm not married, but I do have a personal life." Armstrong says that if he gets injured and cannot wrestle any more Panthers hit five home runs in an offensive barrage to beat Robert E. Lee By SHAWN AKERS Sport* Editor THOMASTON - If you weren’t at Matthew Field in Thomaston on Wednesday afternoon, you missed: • 30 runs scored • 10 walks • 2 hit batsmen • 7 home runs • 15 strikeouts • 22 hits • nine errors When all the numbers were added up, it spelled an 18-12 victory for Perry High School over Robert E. Lee in a Region 4AA baseball game. If you think the game had an offensive flavor to it, you were right. The Panthers hit five home runs, two each by Mark Lee and Toby Gilbert and one by Ken Sikes, and pounded out 12 hits in a relatively small ballpark. Perry interim coach Tim Sim mons was pleased with his team's offensive output, but said that the defense left a lot to be desired. Perry committed five errors that led to several Robert E. Lee runs. "We hit the ball well, but I guess that was overshadowed by the "The next time up I just decided to go out and swing at the first pitch, and I just drilled it And then the next time up, I decided to do the same thing, and I drilled it again. That’s usually what I do is hit the first pitch if it’s there. " Perry rlghtflelder Mark Lee to go out and swing at the first pitch, and I just drilled it. And then the next lime up, I decided to do the same thing, I and drilled it again. That's usually what I do is hit the first pitch if it's there." Both home runs went in about the same place, approximately 360 feet away. A stiff wind might have helped Lee's blasts a bit, but not to the point of carrying the ball beyond the fence. he would help run a fitness center. “I'm a nutrition freak," he con tinued. "I love to help people with body building. "I just love to wrestle. I'm not flashy because it says on the mar quis 'Professional Wrestling'," he explained. "I'm not a glamour boy." Before the match started Chic Donovon said that he has respect for Brad and his family. "When I get into the ring with them, I still have respect for them," Donovon said. "But I'm going to put them down. I will be the next world champion, the next interna tional champion, and the next Georgia champion. He's a great athlete, but so is Chic Donovon." In other matches, Dale Lucas and Paul Miller wrestled to a time-limit draw. In the second match, Sugar Ray Lloyd and Conan, Chris Walker de feated The Redneck and Dirty Billy White. Bambi retained her WWA world heavyweight title by defeating an oriental Lady Assassin. Mr. Olympia defeated Big AI and in the next to last event, Steve "the Brawler" Lawler and Mike Golden were both disqualified for wrestling outside the ring. Perry 070 322 4- 18 12 5 Robert E. Lee 104 302 2 - 12 10 4 Smith, Warnock (4) and Jackson. Sikes, Clark (5) and Dunlap. WP - Sikes (3-2). LP - Smith. Sv - Clark (1). Top hitters - Perry: Mark Lee 3-4 (5 RBI), Toby Gilbert 2-3 (6 RBI), Keith Ragin 2-5 (2 RBI), Ken Sikes 2-4 (1 RBI), Keith Newberry 2-5. Robert E. Lee: Steve Devoursney 3-5 (2 RBI), Bryce Robinson 2-5 (4 RBI). fact that we just didn't play de fense," Simmons said. "We got good pitching out of Ken (Sikes) and Jostcn (Clark), but we did a poor job of backing them up defensively and that really con cerns me. Thai's what we're really going to have to go back and work __ ti on. Sikes, the Panther starter, al lowed 10 runs in five-plus innings, but only five of those were earned. The Rebels scored four unearned runs in the second inning to get within two runs. "Ken just didn't gel any support behind him," Simmons said. "We made some pretty poor mistakes." Despite the defensive mistakes, no one could take away from "With this short fence and with this wind, you'll have a lot of home runs hit," said Robert E. Lee Coach Bobby Smith. "But, of course, Perry hit some balls that would have been out of a lot of ballparks." Lee's roundtrippers were just two of five hit by the Panthers. Toby Gilbert also had two and Ken Sikes hit one as well. The Rebels also hit two. 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Sikes hit a solo home run to center field to lead off the inning, but the big blast came when Toby Gilbert sent one over the right ccn terfield fence for a grand slam to pul Perry up by six runs. "I was very impressed with the way they swung the bat," said Robert E. Lee Coach Bobby Smith. Perry scored three times in the fourth inning, twice more in the fifth and sixth and four times in the lop of the seventh. Although Gilbert's two home runs accounted for six RBI, it was Lee who was the hitting surprise and 7 batters in the order for Perry has not been what Simmons would have liked in the past few games. In fact, with his five RBI, Lee more than tripled his run production from two to seven. "Mark came out of his slump at the right lime," Simmons said. "We sure did need those RBI from him because they (the Rebels) just wouldn't quit.” Lee hopes that his newly-found confidence at the plate will con tinue. "I sure hope I can gel going after this one," Lee said. "I need to start swinging the bat better so I can drive in more runs for us." With the way Perry has been hitting the ball lately, if Lee can do that, opposing teams may need to score 10 runs or more a game to win. for the Panthers. Lee was zero for his last eight going into his third al-bat, but he promptly then de posited the first pilch he saw over the right ccntcrficld fence. "I was getting pretty frustrated at that point," Lee said. "But I was watching him (Rebel pitcher Russ Smith) and I knew I could hit him." Lee did the same thing in his next at-bat and put it in the same place. He also added an RBI single in the seventh inning. Bryce Robinson kept Robert E. Lee in the game with four RBI, in cluding a three-run home run in the fourth inning that cut the Panther lead to 10-8. "They could have buried us," Bobby Smith said. "Our kids hung in there really well and hit the ball. We could have quit and gotten this game over in five innings." With the win, Perry improved to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in Region 4AA, one-half game behind front-running Jackson. The Rebels fell to 5-3 overall and 4-2 in the region. The two teams will meet again on the last day of the regular season on April 20 at Perry. * *u*^^ Perry rlghtflelder Mark Lee 3B