BASEBALL: Errors trip up West Laurens in series debut vs. Harlem

Against a team as good as Harlem’s, West Laurens could ill-afford to give out free bases. 

Though they issued a minimum of the walk and hit-batter variety, the Raiders did commit five costly errors in their series-opening showdown with the unbeaten, two-time defending AAA state champs. 

The Bulldogs capitalized on three of them to score unearned runs – one each in innings 4, 5 and 7 – that made the difference in their 6-3 win to take the first of the week’s pair Tuesday in Dexter, and extend their massive win streak to 34 consecutive games. 

West Laurens (12-8, 11-1 region 4-AAA) travels to Harlem’s Jimmie Lewis Field on Thursday in need of a win, and by three runs or more, to keep their hopes of reclaiming the region title alive.

Hiccups in the field were one of the few snags in mostly clean innings for the game’s pair of starting pitchers – both sharp as they dueled it out for 13 of the 14 frames. 

Harlem’s Will Holder, a Georgia Southern signee, completed the game and struck out 11 while holding West Laurens to just four hits. He walked one, and just one of the Raiders’ three was marked as earned on his final tally. 

The Raiders’ Kolby Clark held his own on the other side of the box, in six innings that included six hits and five runs, though only the first three were earned. The junior struck out five before handing things off to Cohen Cardwell for a seventh stanza that included an unearned sixth Bulldog run, on top of a hit and a walk. 

That made the score 6-2 as West Laurens came into the bottom of the seventh inning, and used Harlem’s only two errors of the game – both on ground balls hit to short – to turn its last chance at the plate into a tense moment. 

Holder, who’d virtually shut the Raiders down in every other inning except their two-run fourth, had to sweat out the last of his 101 pitches as the home team got a third run across the plate, and the tying man aboard. 

A first error by Harlem’s Dalevon Smith at short pried the door open before West’s J.J. Giles jabbed one into the right field gap for a single to put two on and Cason Pollock was drilled in the wrist by a Holder up-and-in to load the bases. Grant Baker struck out to put one away, but West Laurens cut the deficit to three as Smith held the ball after a juggle on a slap grounder by Duggan Malone. 

The rally was up to a simmer, as J.D. Hogan strode up with the sacks remaining full and only one out. But out of the first base dugout came Lewis, the 49th-year Harlem head coach who earlier this season surpassed 900 career wins. 

It was his second such trip of the night for a word with Holder and his entire infield. And whatever the magic words, these were just as effective at conjuring the outs to get the Bulldogs out of the tight. 

Holder struck out both Hogan (on an 0-2) and Hester (on a full count) swinging to end the game, leaving all three aboard and top Raider hitter Parker Bryant standing in the on-deck circle. 

All three runs that made up the final gap traced back to some West Laurens issues in the field, though Harlem opened the scoring with the same number in the second that originated simply with some good, solid hitting. 

Clark had pitched around an early error for a scoreless first inning, but Austin Fox clubbed a single to left to lead off the second. Brody Knight followed with a double deep to left center to drive him in. Then Layton Sowinski put a deep fly into the wind for a ride over the left center fence for a two-run homer. 

But that’d be all for Harlem in the inning after West Laurens head coach Parker Gordon – making effective use of his own mound visit – brought some calming words to the mound that settled down his battery, and Clark rebounded to strike out the the next three batters to end the inning. 

He’d get the side in order in the third, but face a little more trouble in the fourth as Harlem added on a run after Fox got an infield single to lead off, then second base on a likely unneeded Raider throw to first that got away. 

Back-to-back pop-outs ensued, but T.J. Lindo’s single to right field brought home Fox’s run from second to make it 4-0 Harlem. 

Another add-on, after West Laurens had cut the lead to 4-2, came in similar fashion after the single of Walker Spivey early in the fifth. A wild pickoff throw bounced away to get him to second ahead of the sac bunt single of Domenic Titus that put runners at the corners. And that enabled Spivey to score, making it 5-2, as Hester turned a 6-3 double play for outs 1 and 2. 

Another error led off the Harlem sixth, but Clark got a comebacker and threw out Dalevon Smith to end the inning without another run allowed. In the seventh, a wild throw down sent Walker first to third on a stolen base attempt, bringing in a sixth visiting run on a sacrifice fly. 

Holder faced the minimum – with the exception of a third-inning single given up to Pollock – in his first three, but West Laurens was able to scratch the scoreboard for its first two in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

And the Raiders had a shot at more after Hester singled, Bryant walked and Cardwell laid down a successful sacrifice bunt to set up both to score as Clark’s fly to deep center just cleared the range of Titus to fall for a double and two RBIs. 

Two more got into position to score as J.J. Giles was hit by a pitch, and both moved up on a ball that spun awkwardly out of the dirt on Harlem catcher Steven Harshbarger. But after another well-timed Lewis mound visit, a Pollock ground ball to third turned to a double play as courtesy runner Jayden Stanley broke home on Brody Knight’s throw to first. 

Fox had his eyes open at first, and came back to the plate with a lightning throw to get him in plenty of time to end the inning. Holder set right back to work, and got six more outs in order before the Raiders filled the sacks and mounted their final threat in the seventh.

A win, and a wash…

West Laurens blew away Howard 12-1 on a six-inning visit to Macon last Friday to close out another 4-AAA series, and continued its homestand following Tuesday’s Harlem showdown with a handful of innings against Ware County, though thunderstorms cut the non-region game short just shy of official status with the Gators up 6-0 in the bottom of the fourth.

The Raiders out-hit the Huskies 13-1 on Friday, led at the plate by a 3-for-4 Baker, who was a homer shy of the cycle, and a 2-for-3 Bryant, who drove in three runs and hit his fourth home run of the season. Clark and Pollock also finished with two hits each in the count.

The only one for Howard belonged to Jayden Reese, who reached to score in the bottom of the fourth on a throwing error that briefly tied the game at 1.

Most of the West Laurens offense came later on, after Bryant’s fourth-inning deep ball to left put a first run on the board following a scoreless first three.

The Raiders got a Clark hit and a J.J. Giles walk in the second, but otherwise, the first three innings proceeded in 1-2-3 fashion on the top side of the line. A walk issued by Malone, Friday’s Westside starting pitcher, was the lone exception to the trend on the lower side as well.

But the Blue and White finally jumped on Matthew Griffin starting in the fifth, as Baker tripled, Malone, Hogan, Bryant and Cardwell followed with RBI singles and Nathan Hester reached on an error all before a first out.

After that, Pollock drove in two on a single to make it 8-1 and Baker added another base hit before the end of the inning. 

The Raiders got right back to work in the sixth, using an error, HBP and RBIs on a Cardwell groundout, Clark base hit and Baker and Pollock doubles to stretch the lead to its final extent.

Malone walked one and struck out a dozen in the victory.

Wednesday’s partial game concluded with Ware County ahead in the hit tally 7-2. The Gators were held off the board despite a Seth Suess hit in the first inning, but struck for three in the second after Ethan Waldrep hit two batters, Isaiah White doubled up the left field line to drive them in and scored on a wayward pitch.

The Gators built their lead by two more in the third on hits by Slade Sweat, Walker Hudson and Bryce Dixon. A sixth visiting run went on the board in the top of the fourth as a result of an Evan Pearson single and another wild pitch.

The Gators’ Evan Joiner walked the only Raider to reach base in the first two. Waldrep and Baker led off the West Laurens third with base hits, but the first was thrown out immediately after taking too big a turn around the first base bag.

The mishap was costly, as the Raiders loaded the bases later in the frame, but failed to score as it ended on a ground ball.

West Laurens had one out in the bottom of the fourth when lightning halted play, and the game could not be resumed.