In Region 2-AAAA, Jones County represents the haves. Last week’s opponent, McDonough, on the other hand, had the appearance of have-nots as shown by JCHS winning both games by a combined score of 42-5.
Sure, last week’s games on Wednesday and Friday did not hold ramifications of matchups against teams such as Ola or Union Grove, but they still stood as key for Jones County in keeping up late-season momentum. The Greyhounds’ two wins have them tied for second in the region (18-5, 12-4) with Union Grove ahead of next week’s two final region games against ELCA.
>> CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL PHOTO GALLERY!
Wednesday’s 17-2 win at Cecil Patterson Field saw the Greyhounds lead 3-0 after an inning on an Emerson Robinson triple and Kaylob Harris triple, but Jones County also got a spark in the top of the inning as well, as a Warhawks runner reached on an error before being doubled off. From there, the Greyhounds coasted, pouring on 12 runs in the second inning and two more in the third.
“We challenged them. We wanted to score five-plus runs every inning. We fell a little short in the first but came back and put a big one up in the second,” Greyhounds head coach Noble Coley said. “We got some timely hits and had kids come up big in key situations.”
Robinson and Scarbary had triples with two RBIs a piece from Harris, Scarbary, Amir Harris and Landen Wilson.
Harris and Wilson were among those being rotated into the lineup last week in a two-fold effort to give more players experience ahead of the postseason and also provide rest for regular starters. Case in point, Randol Jones saw time at catcher with Cooper Rice pitching Wednesday’s final inning in relief of Dalton Lowe.
“Thats the situation that we’re in. We have some games coming up that we can play with and mix guys in,” Coley said. “(Last Monday) Landon Pettigrew had a no-hitter going and, we pulled him because we needed to get another guy in. Dalton Lowe was fine, but we needed to see another arm. That’s where we are. We have bigger things we are planning for.”
The story was similar on Friday’s affair, a 25-3 win in which JCHS scored a combined 17 runs in the first two innings led by Brayden Lampkin’s two hits and two RBIs in addition to three hits and two RBIs from Scarbary.
There were plenty of extrabase hits to go around, with doubles being laced by MJ Lane, Landon Pettigrew, Nate Vaughn and Chase Hasty. Trent Paulk and Kaylob Harris split time on the mound in Friday’s win.
