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Sports
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Times-Journal Photos by Eric Zellars
SEND IT BACK Jeff Wilson of the Periy High School
Tennis Team prepares to send the ball back to nis oppo
nent during recent PHS tennis action.
Screven County ends PHS
tennis run in first round of
GHSA state tourney
By PHIL CLARK
and CHAD LEWIS
Times-Journal Sports
The end has come to the 1997
Perry High tennis season as the
Panthers were eliminated in the
first round of the state playoffs by
Screven County April 29.
“I’m proud of the job we did
this year,” said Perry coach Luke
Smith. “I wish we could have gone
further, but I’m still proud of the
job we did.”
The loss, which came on their
home court at J. Frank Rozar Park,
dropped the Panthers to 11-2 on
the year.
Three members of the Perry
tennis team, Daniel Wright, Sna
Trevidi, and Seth Green, played
their final high school match of
their careers. The three players are
.■ J I
GOING UP Seth Green (left) rises to the occasion to
return the ball for Perry High. Green and Brandon
Pfleegor (right) represented the Panthers at second dou
bles in state completition.
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TEAM AND TROPHY With their Region 3-AA team
championship trophy are Perry Panthers (front, from left)
Seth Green, Daniel Wright, Sra Trivedi, Richie Sukinas,
(back) Brandon Pfleegor, Jeff Wilson, Coach Luke Smith,
Chris Lindsey and Dewayne Heard.
schedule to graduate this June.
With the victory, Screven
County advances to the quarterfi
nals and jump to a 15-5 record on
the year.
In the individual matches, three
Panthers squared off against
Screven County. Wright fell to
David Reed 6-2. 6-3. Junior Jeff
Wilson lost to Shane Busbee 6-3,
0-6, 6-4. And DeWayne Heard, the
sole sophomore to qualify for
state in singles, was beaten out by
Raymond Loumb 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In doubles action, both pairs of
Panthers were eliminated as well.
Wes Hill and Robbie Overby
beat out Chris Lindsey and Trevidi
7-6 (7-2), 6-0. Ryan Norton and
Tripp Sheppard knocked out
Brandon Pflegor and Green 6-0, 6-
2.
Page 6A
Wed. April 30, 1997
Early innings
tough for
WHS Hornets
By PHIL CLARK
Times-Journal Sports
The early innings have not
been kind to Billy Sellers’
Westfield baseball team in recent
games.
The Hornets took the field for
three games the week of Apr 21-
25, and gave up a total of 29 runs
over the first two innings, digging
themselves into holes they
weren’t able to climb out of.
On April 21, Southland sent 16
batters to the plate in the first inning,
scoring 12 runs after two were out.
Thirteen straight Southland batters
reached safely on eight hits, three
walks and two errors.
After the first inning uprising,,
the Hornets were able to battle on
even terms with the visitors, los
ing 15-5.
It was more of the same April
22 at Stratford as the Eagles
scored four in the first and three
in the second to take a 7-1 lead.
Westfield cut the lead to 7-4
with three in the fourth before the
Eagles erupted for five more in
the fifth on the way to a 14-4 win.
Back at home on Friday April
25 to play Windsor, the Hornets
gave up two in the top of the first
but tied the game with two of
their own in the bottom half of the
inning.
Windsor put the game away
with eight in the second as they
took an 18-5 region 1 AAA win.
Southland 12 3 0 0 0 -15
Westfield 0 0 0 0 5 - 5
Winner: Sellers, Loser Horton. 2B:
Isreal (S), Stichcum (S), 3B:
Brumbelow (W)
Westfield 0 10 3 0 0 -4
Stratford 430 052 -14
Winner: Gibson Loser: Hardy.
2B: Bazemore (W), Bryant (S), Gibson
(S), Payane (S), HR: Gibson (S)
Windsor 28 0 10 2 7 -18
Westfield 200002 0-5
Winner: Evans Loser: Hardy.
Hulbert (W), Pirozzi (WI), Bryant
(WI). HR: Murph (W), Bryant 2 (WI),
Trice (WI).
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Special Photo
MIGHTY DRIBBLERS TEAM PARTICIPATED IN MICRO SOCCER SEASON
Program coached by volunteer Leigh Ann Rainwater
Soccer reaches down to 3-4 year olds this spring
Special to the Times-Journal
The City of Perry Parks and
Recreation Department has just
Panthers claim Region
3-AA tennis title
By PHIL CLARK
Times-Journal Sports
There was jubilation around the
tennis courts at Rozar Park in
Perry April 23 as the Perry High
School boys tennis team knocked
off Bleckley County to win the
Georgia High School Association
region 3-AA title and the right to
advance to this week’s state
matches.
Perry picked up its first
point when the number one
doubles team of San Trevedi
and Chris Lindsey beat the
Royals’ Brad Giddens and Josh
Hall 6-3, 6-1.
There were four matches going
on simultaneously, but the number
one doubles team was the first to
finish.
With number one singles play
ers Daniel Wright of Perry and
Nhut Nguyen playing a deliberate
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Times-Journal Photos by Eric Zellars
IS HE SAFE? Brian Staines (above, center) prepares to
take an opponent out at second base during recent
Westfield Hornet action. Burke Murph (below, right)
rounds third base and gets a pat from Westfield coach
Billy Sellars after Murphnit a home run in an 18-5 loss to
Windsor.
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concluded the Spring Micro
Soccer season. The season
kicked off the beginning of
match on court one, Perry’s num
ber two singles player Dewayne
Heard was disposing of Bleckley’s
Teremy Knighton on court two 6-
4, 6-0.
With Wright and Nguyen still
on the court, Perry’s number three
singles player Jeff Wilson
smashed a forehand return to the
back left part of the court past Josh
Jones for the deciding point in the
second set, and won the match 6-
1, 6-4, and gave the Panthers the
region victory.
Wright lost eventually to
Nguyen 6-2, 6-1, but the number
two doubles team of Seth Green
and Brandon Pfleegor won over
Bleckley’s Drew Rabun and
Rickey Miller 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 for the
4-1 team victory.
Richie Sokinas was Perry’s
alternate for the matches.
Houston Urns-Journal
March and ran through April 24.
This program designed for 3
and 4-year-old children was the
first of its kind. Micro Soccer is
a pilot program coached by the
recreation volunteeer Leigh Ann
Rainwater, with support and
participation from the parents.
The program has just a few
basic rules with the first, to have
fun, and which goal the ball is
suppose to go in.
Rather than having to attend
and just watch their big brother
or sisters sporting events, micro
soccer players were the ones on
the field scoring and having a
blast. The smiles on their faces
and the high fives were conta
gious.
Each Micro Soccer game the
“Dribblers” were divided into
teams of four. The soccer ball
hardly ever went out of bounds
because the parents surrounded
the field and kept the ball in.
Even though the children
were taught how to do throw-ins,
coaches found with this age
group, the game was much more
of a success if it was on-going.
The program was a definite
challenge at times. As with all
new programs, officials did
(See SOCCER, Page 7A)
Phil
Clark
Times-Journal
Sports
Ole’ Earn just
wont stay retired
Ernie Johnson retired from full
time service with the Atlanta
Braves organization after the
1989 season. But he never really
retired. He continued to serve as a
fill-in announcer on Braves radio,
and on WTBS, Ted Turner’s tele
vision superstation that televises
most of the Braves games.
Later, when Sports South
began to pick up games TBS was
unable to televise, there was Old
Em again, working with his son,
Ernie Jr.
But let’s back up a bit. Ernie
Johnson has been a part of the
Braves organization for 55 years,
signing fight out of Brattleboro
(Vt.) High School in 1942. Never
a real super star pitcher, Johnson
nonetheless made it to the big
team in 1950. The Braves had
moved from Boston to Milwaukee
while Johnson toiled in the minor
leagues.
Johnson spent nine years in the
big leagues, mostly as a long and
middle reliever. He did have a
pretty respectable record, winning
40 while losing 23 over those nine
years.
It was in the public relations
department after his 1959 retire
ment as a player that really got
Ernie to thinking about a career as
a broadcaster.
Back then, it wasn’t common
place for ex-players to move into
the press box, as it is today. By the
time the team moved to Atlanta,
Johnson was to cover Braves
baseball for 25 years as a regular
member of the broadcast team.
Later, he was director of broad
casting as well, heading up the
Braves network of radio stations
across the southeast.
Ernie Johnson has experienced
some exciting moments in base
ball. For example, of the eight
batters who have hit four home
runs in a game since 1945, Ernie
Johnson has been present five
times! He was a rookie relief
pitcher for the then-Boston
Braves in 1950 when Gil Hodges
blasted four out of the park for the
Dodgers, still in Brooklyn at the
time. In 1954, after the Braves
moved to Milwaukee, Johnson
watched teammate Joe Adcock hit
four homers and a double against
the Dodgers at Ebbetts Field. That
18-total base game for Adcock is
still a record.
Johnson even contributed to
the four homer barrage in 1959,
when he was one of four
Baltimore pitchers to give up a
homer to Rocky Colavito of
Cleveland.
After that short stint in
Baltimore, Johnson was back with
the Braves, retired as a player in
1961 when the Giants’ Willie
Mayes clouted four against the
Braves. And Johnson again wit
nessed history in 1986 when the
Braves Bob Homer hit four in a
game.
The only three times since
World War II that four homers
were hit in a game without
Johnson’s presence were in 1948
when White Sox Pat Seerey did it.
Mike Schmidt of Philadelphia hit
four in a 1976 game, and Mark
Whitten, then of the St. Louis
Cardinals, turned the trick in
1993.
Radio listeners love Ernie
Johnson. He has a warm, sincere
personality, and it radiates over
the airwaves. His booth mates
over the years, Milo Hamilton,
Pete Van Wieren and Skip Caray,
were never intimidated by
Johnson’s position as director of
broadcasting, nor the fact that he
was so popular with fans and
players.
Instead, it probably helped
announcers with large egos, like
Hamilton and Caray.
Rod Hudspeth of the Atlanta
Journal once wrote of Johnson,
“With his soothing voice and
over-the-back-fence delivery,
Ernie’s as comfortable as an old
shoe.”
Since he still makes a few
appearances on radio when Van
Wieren is away doing basketball,
and since Sports South still invites
him to do their telecasts, fans still
get to hear that familiar voice,
though it’s 72 years young now.
Most fans will always consider
their favorite game sign-off to be
Johnson’s “And on this winning
night, so long everybody.”