BASEBALL: Dublin, East Laurens finish out strong; RBIs remain elusive for West Laurens in final non-region tests

The regular season ended with victories for each of the county’s GHSA baseball programs late last week, three of them apiece for Dublin and East Laurens squads who swept their final region foes and an additional team to enter the playoffs on confident streaks. 

West Laurens also completed its league schedule in spotless fashion with 20-plus run routs of Baldwin for two of its last four. But the remaining pair were a continuation of some discouraging late-season offensive trends as the Raiders suffered their seventh and eighth consecutive non-region losses on the road. 

All three will open the GHSA playoffs on Friday. 

West Laurens is seeded No. 5 in AAA, and will host Gilmer. The Irish are also set to be at home on the 15-v-18 line facing Jasper County. The Falcons (in a last-minute shuffle of the bracket after they originally drew a region rematch with ACE Charter) will go on the road to face No. 8 Fitzgerald. 

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Dublin (19-9, 14-4 region 2-High A) won the two nailbitingest games of the bunch as it pulled out tight ones with Dodge County, 2-0 at home on Tuesday, then 8-7 Friday in Eastman. 

The Irish also marked senior night Thursday by rolling past GMC 9-2 in their finale at Bush Perry Field. 

Xavier Reese had the Indians stumped in a complete-game shutout to begin the series Tuesday. 

The senior – with the help of two double plays – pitched around seven hits, while striking out six and walking only one, to hold Dodge County off the scoreboard. 

He also contributed a difference-making run to his own cause with a ground ball for an RBI to break the scoreless deadlock in the third inning. Will Wallace brought home a run to insure the lead during inning 4. 

Wallace, Jeff Davis, C.J. Stubbs and Ryland Yates had the only four Irish hits off of the Indians’ Kain Mincey, who also went the distance with six strikeouts and only three walks. But seven stolen bases, of which Yates was responsible for three, moved some key runs up to scoring position to allow the Irish to strike. 

Friday’s rematch was higher scoring, but also came down to some plays on the margin as Dublin stole the same number of bags (eight) as it had hits, and once again put itself in position to capitalize when mistakes were made or balls were put in play with less than two outs. 

Bennett Lake, who had two of those stolen bases, scored from second on a dropped third strike to tack on an extra run to the two already scored on RBIs by Tal Duke (who led off his 3-for-4 day with a solo home run) and Bryceton Evans that gave the Irish (down 1-0 coming in) their first lead in the second inning. 

After Dodge County tied with two to answer in the third, the Irish got a go-ahead home via ground ball (an RBI to the credit of Lake) with a couple on in the top of the fourth. Additional baserunning traffic allowed a two more to cross the plate back-to-back to extend the lead to 6-3 on a Dodge wild pitch-error combo in the fifth. 

The Indians, who took advantage of five errors and nine walks to stay in the game, narrowed the lead to one in the fifth. 

But Dublin answered right back with two runs of its own, as RBIs via base hit by C.J. Stubbs and a Lake ground ball that became a second out via fielder’s choice bookended Wallace’s second hit of the game, and another fielder’s choice grounder by Morgan Davis to keep things moving along. 

The Irish pitching staff, with Morgan Davis, Yates, Duke and Wallace taking the hill for no more than two innings apiece, combined for eight strikeouts. 

Three-run second and third innings were a major boost behind a wire-to-wire outing from starting pitcher Jeff Davis in the Thursday-night win. The senior tossed 94 pitches, striking out five, walking four and giving up only three GMC hits. 

Dublin stole 10 more bases, a couple in the second that helped it grab two more after becoming the first to reach the scoreboard on an error. One was caught trying to move up early in the third, but the Irish were successful in at least six other instances on their way to three more in the frame that doubled the run total, and elevated the lead to 6-1.

Wallace, who joined Evans with two hits and RBIs, doubled for the biggest hit in the extended sequence. 

The Irish had a couple of errors bite, though both the Bulldogs’ runs – one each in the third and sixth innings – were earned. 

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Last week’s three wins lifted East Laurens (16-13, 11-7 region) to its first winning season since 2017, and also solidified its second-straight state berth in a state tournament. 

The Falcons won by double figures in each, with finals of 21-7 Tuesday and 13-0 Friday making up its sweep of Northeast and a score of 13-3 in its non-region rematch with Montgomery County on Thursday. 

The week’s opener in Macon, however, was tied at 7 ending the fifth, just before East Laurens busted loose for the 14 unanswered runs, in equal installments during the top halves of the last two innings, that won it going away. 

In the total accounting, things didn’t look remotely close. 

The Falcons piled up 20 hits against nine, with Logan Gibson going 4-for-6 with two RBIs to lead the lineup, and five others chalking up multi-hit games. 

Myles Burke, Conner Lawrence (with three driven in) and Konner O’Neal all had three. Grayson Edge and Brody Kight added two each. 

But Northeast, after grabbing a quick three in the first, found ways to crank out a run per inning through the fifth and keep its standing in the exciting back-and-forth battle. 

The Raiders held the game’s first two leads (with big RBIs by Jordan Wiggins and C.J. Jackson dueling with the back-to-back doubles of O’Neal and Gibson that put a pair on the board for East in the first), and tied the game back up with one in their half of the fifth after East (capitalizing on a wild pitch, several stolen bases and doubles by Lawrence and O’Neal) took it back in a three-run fourth. 

But the flood gates opened after Jaiden Center walked the bases full early with the score knotted at 7 in the sixth. 

Edge broke the tie with a single, then three scored on wild pitches, one on an error and another pair on Sam Wynn’s two-run double to put the Falcons squarely on top. 

Edge, on for the starter Lawrence (who allowed seven hits and three earned runs with two walks and eight strikeouts in his five innings) proceeded to face the minimum despite two Northeast hits in the remaining innings. 

East Laurens kept Northeast much more quiet on Thursday, as Brody Kight limited the Raiders to just two hits in the game’s five innings. He struck out seven and walked only one, while also driving in three supporting runs at the plate. 

Lawrence and Cade Oliver had two hits each and combined for three RBIs. Nollan Scott, Edge (both with triples), Wynn, Kight, Gibson and O’Neal also hit safely for the Falcons as they piled up three or more runs in each of the four innings they came to bat. 

Thursday’s MoCo game was the closest of the three, though East Laurens led the hit count 8-6, and the game from the start thanks to five runs off the bat in the first inning. 

The Eagles got it briefly to a three-run game before giving up the first four of seven final unanswered runs in the fourth when the game split open.

Wynn had three hits for five RBIs to lead the Falcons at the plate. Edge also drove in four on two. Lawrence stole three bases. 

Jakeb Logue got the win on the hill in five innings, surrendering only six hits and three runs (two earned), and a couple of walks against five strikeouts. 

Jaxten Thomas faced three in one inning of relief, and had one strikeout. 

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Since walking off to beat Appling County in eight innings March 5, West Laurens has had a perplexing streak of rotten luck against non-region opponents. 

Among six-straight losses leading into the Raiders’ final week of the schedule were a sundry mix of one-sided affairs, close calls that got away and late comeback efforts that couldn’t quite clear the hump… the last two sharing a common theme of pitfalls with runners in scoring position. 

They were hungry for some redemption with two more chances to bounce back against quality ballclubs on Monday and Wednesday, but instead saw the uncanny trend of missed opportunities intensify even further on trips to Baxley, where Appling County took the teams’ long-anticipated rematch by 6-0 shutout, and Bellville, as the offensive frustration spiraled even further in a 3-1 loss to Pinewood Christian. 

West Laurens (18-9 overall) would rebound from both setbacks by lighting up Baldwin by 20-0 and 22-0 finals Tuesday and Thursday in its remaining games to complete region play a perfect 14-0. 

Appling ace Harrison Hickox struck out 13, walked only two and limited West Laurens to six hits – all singles – in the process of completing seven dominant innings within a pitch or two of his max Monday night. 

The Raiders created a handful of opportunities, but couldn’t cash in on any of them. 

J.D. Hogan, who’d be stranded twice after drawing a walk and scratching out a single, was their only man to reach base in the first four innings. Cohen Cardwell suffered the same fate after roping a base hit to lead off the fifth. 

West Laurens’ best opportunities came after the Pirates had already scored their six runs in the fourth and fifth innings. 

Back-to-back base hsingles to open sixth, by Nathan Hester and Grant Baker, and another pair in the seventh by Cardwell and Buck Shepherd, went by the boards in the absence of an elusive RBI. 

Hickox punched out the side in the sixth to get ’em, and in the seventh, picked off a man before rebounding from a walk with his 13th to end the game. 

The Raiders’ Kolby Clark struck out six and walked four in a start that kept things scoreless through three innings. 

But Appling got back-to-back hits from Jarrod Deen and Nate Carter to open the fourth that made scoring an inevitability despite his excellent work to clear the jam, and the Pirates struck for their first two on a wild pitch and an RBI dribbler by Nolan Sikes. 

They’d do the same with four more hits in the fifth,bringing nine to the plate and piling on for four more. 

Braye Brown, Hickox and Carter all had base hits before an error to score a third run forced a West Laurens move to the pen for Cardwell. 

Bryce Nail hammered another RBI to make it 6-0, but Duggan Malone threw out a Pirate at the plate for the final out of the inning. 

Cardwell worked around a couple more hits to prevent further damage with two strikeouts in the seventh. 

He and Clark both picked off a runner. 

Brown was 3-for-3 and Carter 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead Appling County’s nine-hit effort. 

Solid swings were even more abundant for the Raiders Wednesday afternoon, but they once again couldn’t buy a run. 

Baserunners – 11 total – were stranded in every inning, and golden chances went unredeemed in both the first and third when the sacks were left loaded. 

Fewer opportunities presented in the rest, but they were just as haunted by missed opportunities, as two more got marooned in the fourth and the fifth, though a Nathan Hester sacrifice fly in the latter would finally break the scoring drought. 

Pinewood starting pitcher Luc Oates gave up the only six West Laurens hits, walking three with five strikeouts, and that lone unearned run. 

The Raiders worked his pitch count to force an exit after five innings, but would have little to work with from that point against reliever Mattox Elrod, who walked the only two men to reach in the final two innings, and set them down fairly readily to pick up the save.

The West Laurens staff held the Patriots to only four hits, all confined to the first two innings. 

But Pinewood hit some holes in an active opening frame to force its only three runs across as Houston Folsom and Maddux Lewis responded with RBIs to follow up the singles of Oates and Banks Hearn, and a Sam Wasson hit-by-pitch to lead off the game.  

Malone walked one and struck out three the rest of the way to keep the Pats scoreless in his two remaining innings. 

Brycen Milton would take over and fire the final three, allowing only two more baserunners to reach via walk and HBP. He’d strike out four and add another two to make it 10 on his season-long pickoff hit list. 

Both Baldwin victories were quite straightforward against a winless squad that was comprised of only freshmen and sophomores, and had just nine players on hand for Tuesday’s visit to Dexter. 

The Braves were no-hit by the tandem of Gunner Coleman, who struck out four, and Grant Baker, who got the side on strikes in the third, but also hit a batter to bring one Brave in excess of the minimum to the plate. 

The Raiders walloped 11 hits, with highlights including triples by both Clark and Cason Pollock. 

Baldwin’s staff issued nine walks. 

Thursday’s proceeded similarly, with 11 West Laurens hits on top of a three-inning perfect game on the hill for Tripp Mascaro, who struck out eight of the nine he retired in order. 

The Raiders scored nine in each of the first two innings, and four in the third on 11 hits and nine Baldwin errors. 

Micah Wells was 2-for-4 and Tyler Clark 2-for-3 with three RBIs each. Landon Norton and Luke Shepard also had two-hit nights, with a combined three driven in.