Last week, the Greyhounds admitted that there was an extra amount of motivation with something at stake to end the season. Now, something even bigger is on the line with the state playoffs getting underway this week.
Jones County, the third seed in the region following a pair of losses last week to Locust Grove, began the postseason Wednesday of this week at Harris County with the if-necessary game being Thursday. The winner of that series will play the winner of Midtown or Loganville in the second round scheduled for May 3-4.
“Our kids are hungry. I think they’re ready to play with something on the line again. This past week, we had something on the line and fell a little bit short,” Greyhounds head coach Jason Page said. “Now, we have a chance to get back into it. They’re excited. We’re very senior heavy, so hopefully that experience will help them.”
Harris County is the second seed from GHSA Region 2-AAAAA, finishing second to Whitewater. The Tigers are 20-9 overall with a 14-4 region record. By comparison, Jones County is 18-8 and 10-4 in region play. Harris County finished a game back of first place, winning two of three to finish the season against Whitewater.
“We’re playing a very talented Harris County team, but I think we match up well with them,” Page said. “If we play well and don’t make mistakes, I think we’ll have a good chance to win.”
In addition to getting timely hits and playing sound defense, another key for the Greyhounds in the first round will be on at least one occasion having the starting pitcher put JCHS in position for reliever Bo Mansfield, mostly a short-inning specialist, to close the game out.
“He’s been really good for us. You’ve got a kid that throws a bit unorthodox, and you (want to) get in there and let him throw the last two innings and let him slam the door,” Page said. “He’s been in a lot of big games for us. I don’t think the pressure bothers him. We’d like to have it close or ahead late and hand it off to him.”
Quin McManmon, Brody Gordon and Landon Callif figure to be the likely candidates to either start or see the most time on the mound to begin games.
“This is a very good baseball team that we’re playing, and at some point, you’ll have to play someone that’s a really good team, so why not do it in the first round?” Page said. “This group can go a long way as long as we play clean baseball and hit the baseball. We’ve got to hit. If not, we’ll be back here next week.”
The Greyhounds, who dropped their home finale on Tuesday to Locust Grove 6-1 despite two hits from Aiden Payne, bounced back on Thursday, pulling even in the top of the fourth before a pair of Wildcat runs proved to be the final margin in a 6-4 win.
The Greyhounds scored a pair of runs in the second by Austin May that scored Keagan Baxter and Dawson Harris plus a Chase Milton single an inning later to score Tucker Mix for a 3-0 lead.
After Locust Grove pushed four runs across to lead 4-3, Austin May’s third RBI of the game in the top of the fourth evened things up before a pair of Locust Grove runs got the 6-4 win. May led the Greyhounds at the plate with three runs batted in and two hits with Dawson Harris also having a pair of hits.
Clearly, the win would have been a nice bonus for the Greyhounds. More importantly, however, JCHS capped the regular season playing well just before the postseason.
“We had a call go against us that kind of changed the whole dynamic, but our kids went up there and played a whole lot better (than Tuesday). We competed at the plate and did some really good things,” Page said. “A call literally cost us two runs, and we lost by two runs. We accomplished what we needed to.”
