BASEBALL HOUNDS
In recent weeks, Greyhounds head coach Mike Paulk has talked of a youth-laden team showing progress. On Friday, that growth was backed up with a thrilling win full of grit against one of the region’s top teams.
Sure, the Greyhounds before last week had found victory against teams from the region, but those were against Eagles Landing, which is winless in the region. Last week, Ola brought a tougher challenge. On Friday, the Greyhounds showed they were up to the challenge, coming back from a 6-0 deficit to win 10-9.
“That was a great game. It’s the things we’ve been preaching in practice – being fundamentally sound, doing the little things right.
When we do make mistakes, we’re not beating ourselves about it and working through it,” Greyhounds head coach Mike Paulk said.
“It was a great win, but it was a personal victory for us because of the things we’ve implemented. We used a lot of different guys, and they performed.”
The win came two days after a 13-3 loss to Ola, and when Jones County fell behind 6-0 on Friday thanks to five Mustang runs in the second inning – many due to miscues by the Greyhounds – the Greyhounds were in a position where some young teams may have relented.
Instead, the opposite happened. The Greyhounds batted around in the second, scoring eight runs to go up 8-6.
“My speech to them at the bottom of the second was that we don’t need to get all of them back.
Let’s get two back and put pressure on them,” Paulk said. “Our bats came alive, and things kind of fell our way. Kudos to our guys for sticking in there.”
Even when the Mustangs would rally to go up 9-8, the Greyhounds bounced back in the bottom of the sixth on runs scored by Tucker Maddox and Marlin Mills for the tying and go-ahead runs.
That’s when Brody Gordon, the Greyhounds’ fourth pitcher of the day, came in to close the door, getting every out via strikeout. He followed five innings from starter Cason Taylor as well as Zachary Jones and Bo Mansfield in relief.
Taylor slowed down the Mustangs following the second inning, giving up just one more run and also getting out of a jam in the fourth inning on a double play.
“One of the pluses of being young is sometimes not understanding the situation that you are in,” Paulk said of Taylor. “He’s a great pitcher. He has good stuff now and the mental aspect; he’s growing. I didn’t see him get flustered or upset. He kept his composure like a guy two or three years older than he is.”
With the waters calmed in the field, Jones County went to work at the plate starting with the pivotal second inning. A basesloaded single by Davis Upshaw plated Maddox and Mills, and Colin Evans singled in Noah Robinson.
JCHS was far from done, with Cohen Barfield driving in pinch runner Drew Jones. After Dawson Harris ripped a single to score Evans, Ola called for a pitching change.
Griffin Maki rolled out the welcome mat with a two-run double, putting the Hounds ahead 7-6.
Robinson would go on to draw a walk with the eighth and final run of the frame.
But the win wouldn’t come easy, even as Ola appeared to be grabbing momentum. JCHS went three up and three down in the fourth and fifth, and a soft liner off the Mustangs bat in the top of the sixth put Ola up 9-8.
The Greyhounds rallied with two outs, starting with a double by Maddox as they put pressure on the Mustangs. With runners on the corners following a Mills infield hit, the Hounds tied it when a third strike to Robinson was dropped by the catcher, and a mishandled throw to first allowed Maddox to score the tying run. Taylor would hit a hard grounder to third base, which resulted in a throwing error that enabled Mills to score the winning run.
