Greyhounds head baseball coach Noble Coley said before the season began that Jones County’s early span of games will help it prepare for the slate of region games. The Hounds got a lot of testing in that respect over the weekend at LakePoint Sport Community during the Georgia Dugout Club tournament, winning two of three games to start the season 3-1.
JCHS got wins of 6-1 and 7-5 against East Paulding and Cherokee before a 10-0 loss to a Seckinger team ranked fifth in 5A. All three of the Greyhounds’ opponents were hardly pushovers as each of them advanced to the second round of last year’s state playoffs.
The Greyhounds host Howard next Monday and play at Putnam County Wednesday before the Feb. 28 region opener at home against Eagles Landing.
Both of the weekend’s wins saw good pitching lead the way. Against East Paulding, Dalton Lowe gave up two hits and struck out four over five innings with Cayden Tidwell yielding two hits in two innings. Against Cherokee, Landon Pettigrew held the Chiefs to two runs and five hits through three and a third of an inning with Landen Wilson surrendering a run and two hits in two innings while Cason Taylor went one and two thirds of an inning, giving up two runs and three hits.
But the Greyhounds did plenty of work at the plate, too.
Few did more against East Paulding than Jonathan Scarbary, who had two homers and five RBIs with two hits from Davis Upshaw and Brayden Lampkin.
JCHS showed some early-season fight against Cherokee, coming back from a 4-0 deficit after five innings, going on to win 7-4.
Kaylob Harris led the way at the plate with two hits and two RBIs with single hits by Emerson Robinson, Taylor, Upshaw, Pettigrew and Micah Howard.
