BASEBALL ROUNDUP: East Laurens, Southwest shutouts keep Dublin humming along early in region play

Through seven games, the margin separating Dublin from an unbeaten record and its current 5-2 is surprisingly minuscule. 

A first loss, by the final of 3-2 in extra innings at Johnson County Feb. 12, hinged on a couple of costly errors. The only other came this past week at home against Toombs County, which avenged its home loss to start the season with a 2-1 victory at Bush Perry Field, though a tying run was only 90 feet from scoring when the final out came in the last of the seventh. 

The Irish, who are returning the bulk of a roster that kept their program’s recent momentum going with 20 wins and a second-straight state playoff appearance last spring, have picked up right where they left off a year ago in this season’s competitive start. 

And the past week’s games – to wrap up a sweep of East Laurens with a 10-0 win at home and begin what will likely be a second-straight with a 24-0 shutout of Southwest on Tuesday – have featured more of the simple execution that’s been their calling card. 

With a team batting average of .291, and slugging percentage of just .345, the Dublin bats are doing nothing to overpower you… just coming through with timely swings when runners are in position to score (which an average of nearly six and a half stolen bases per game, the total 45, makes a high likelihood). 

Defensively, the Irish have committed only seven errors, and their pitchers have combined for a healthy 3-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio, with a staff ERA of less than 1. 

Those trends, as each of the above continue getting settled into the midseason rhythm, would seem to have them in great shape as they forge deeper into the region schedule next week with two against highly-rated Washington County. In between will be a road rematch against Swainsboro, which Dublin outdueled 3-1 in its home opener Feb. 13. 

The big ones with ACE and Bleckley will come at the end of March. 

Toombs County’s Joseph Owens hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh for the difference in last Thursday’s home loss, just after Dublin had scored a run to tie it at 1-each – as C.J. Stubbs and Xavier Reese singled ahead of a Tal Duke sacrifice fly – in its half of the sixth. 

Duke and Jeff Davis, with two hits each, led the Irish at the plate. 

And Jeff doubled to lead off the bottom half of the seventh, and advanced a base on a wild pitch in short order to put Dublin in great position to answer and re-tie the game with nobody out. 

But Owens, on the hill, struck out the next two Irish hitters and grounded out the last to strand him at third. 

The Davis duo, Jeff striking out three around five walks in five innings of work, and Morgan, allowing a hit and a walk in the last two, handled Dublin’s pitching duties. 

Five innings of shutdown work by Ryland Yates, plus an uneventful inning of relief from Will Wallace, got the Irish through the six innings they needed to score 10 in Friday’s series finale with East Laurens. 

Yates struck out 10 against four walks, and gave up three of the Falcons’ four hits. Wallace surrendered on additional base hit, but struck out two of the remaining three that he retired to get a 7-0 lead to the bottom half of the sixth, where the above pitchers drove in three runs to walk off. 

Wallace singled to score Stubbs and Reese (who were recipients of a walk and hit-by-pitch), then swiped second and third (for his third and fourth stolen bases of the night) before coming home on Yates’ ground ball to end the game. 

Jeff Davis’ three hits, for three RBIs, fit into a total of seven in the Dublin offensive effort that was bolstered by 11 steals. 

East Laurens pitchers Grayson Edge and Jakeb Logue also walked six. 

Konner O’Neal had two of the Falcons’ four hits on the night. 

The Irish out-hit Southwest 8-1, and went off for 22 runs in the second inning, to make Tuesday’s game short and sweet. 

Bryceton Evans led a cabal of Dublin batters with base hits, going 2-for-2 with an RBI. Yates (4) and Wallace (3) led the Irish in RBIs. 

Dublin stole as many bases (10) as Southwest pitchers issued walks. 

Reese faced the minimum and got the win in his three innings of work, striking out six. 

West Laurens 16, Hephzibah 1, West Laurens 15, Hephzibah 0 

The Raiders scored 31 runs in six innings, as they got two complete games to fit inside just under two hours – a total time of 1:55 – in a Tuesday doubleheader. 

West Laurens (6-0, 5-0 region 4-AAA) used a pitcher per inning. 

Kolby Clark, Tripp Mascaro and freshman Brycen Milton (in his varsity debut) striking out their respective sides in game 1, and Cohen Cardwell fanning three more, before Gunner Coleman and Grant Baker punched out one each in their respective portions of game 2. 

The group hit two batters and walked only one, holding Hephzibah to one hit in each game. 

At the plate, Baker was 6-for-6 and drove in five runs, while Mascaro (4-for-6, with five RBIs) extended his recent hit streak to 13 in as many at-bats before an error and pop-out later in game 2 brought the incredible run over the last five games to an end. 

Kolby Clark and Jeremiah Baker added three hits apiece. Buck Shepherd had two (joining Grant Baker with a pair of triples), Cason Pollock and Cohen Cardwell each had two. 

Bleckley Co. 12, East Laurens 2 

The Falcons scratched out two runs in the third to cut a 3-0 Bleckley lead to one, but kept within striking distance only momentarily as the Royals came right back in the bottom of the inning to score six of their nine unanswered to win Tuesday’s series opener after only five frames. 

Nollan Scott was hit by a pitch and Lawrence singled to set up a Jaxten Thomas RBI early in East’s key inning. Logue, on to run for Lawrence, advanced on a wild pitch to score from third on an Edge single, which would help put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position before a runner was cut down on a ball in play for the third out. 

Bleckley had runs in every inning, and out-hit the Falcons 6-5. Walker Boatright contributed two hits to that total, and struck out eight in his complete-game effort on the hill. 

Cullen Senters’ double walked things off for the Royals in the bottom of the fifth. 

Treutlen 4, East Laurens 3 

The Falcons (2-6, 0-3 region 2-High A) went on to drop a heartbreaker Wednesday night at Treutlen that they led 3-2 after another single-inning outburst in the third. 

But East Laurens, which out-hit the Vikings 7-5, couldn’t score in any of the six other innings.

Cade Oliver singled in advance of consecutive RBIs by Lawrence, Myles Burke and O’Neal to go on top. 

But Treutlen responded with two in the bottom of the fifth for the eventual difference, taking advantage of an early walk with a two-out double by Caden Parrish that tied it at 3. 

He’d advance on a passed ball, and score on a balk to put the Vikings back ahead. 

Parrish got the win on the mound with eight strikeouts and only two walks in six innings. Gavin Bailey struck out the side to save it, stranding two East Laurens base runners who drew walks, in the seventh. 

Logue gave up two earned runs on four strikeouts and two walks in five innings as the Falcons’ starter. Brody Kight gave up one hit, and struck out two, against four batters. 

Next… 

Both the unfinished region 2-High A series above will conclude, weather permitting, on Friday as Dublin travels to Southwest and East Laurens plays host to Bleckley. The Falcons will have two with Central Macon and their first of a split region series with Jefferson County the following week. 

West Laurens will be competing in the Georgia Dugout Club tournament at Lakepoint, just south of Cartersville, against Franklin County on Friday night then Alexander and Heard County in back-to-back games Saturday morning.