In spots, the Greyhounds scored multiple runs in last week’s region-opening grouping of games against Union Grove, putting three runs across the plate in two of the three matchups against the Wolverines.
The problem for Jones County (1-6) was what transpired in the earlier innings. Although JCHS dropped one contest 14-4, a pair of late rallies put the Greyhounds in position to win, falling 4-3 on Tuesday and 9-6 in the nightcap of a doubleheader on Thursday, a game in which Jones County rallied to put winning run at the plate in the final inning against a Union Grove team that was in the postseason last year.
“When you look at the score and situation that we were in late, I have no doubt that we can hang with teams like Union Grove,” Greyhounds head coach Mike Paulk said.
Deficits in those two close losses ended up being costly. Last Tuesday, the Wolverines led 4-0 after five innings, and that was just enough to hold off the Greyhounds comeback as Kaylob Harris drove in two runs and hits came from Colin Evans, Marlin Mills, MJ Lane, Cohen Barfield, Davis Upshaw and Harris.
“In those two games, we had to come from behind. That’s what is frustrating about it. We showed some fight late, but that’s what you want throughout the game,” Paulk said. “We were pleased with how we played at the end, but we’ve got to not wait until the last at-bat to have that intensity.”
In Thursday’s 9-6 loss, Union Grove led 2-1 after two innings before breaking a 3-3 tie through four innings to go ahead 9-3 prior to Jones County’s rally during a nigh in which Mills, Dalton Lowe and Barfield drove in runs and hits came via Mills, Brayden Lampkin, Lowe, Barfield, Lane and Harris.
The Greyhounds tied in in the fourth when Cason Taylor’s hit down the left line dropped in for two runs. It would not be the last offensive rally for JCHS on Friday, with seventh-inning RBIs by Mills and Barfield with Mills going on to score on a wild pitch for the sixth Greyhound run of the game before JCHS would be eventually turned away to end the game.
With this year’s region baseball schedule matching up teams against one another in three successive matchups, teams are able to see plenty of what their pitchers can do. For a JCHS team that pitched all sophomores and one junior last week, that’s seen as nothing but a positive.
Last Tuesday, Jonathan Scarbary, Landon Pettigrew and Cayden Tidwell split time with Scarbary giving up a run and two hits, striking out four while Tidwell held the Wolverines hitless and scoreless in an inning of work.
Taylor, Trent Paulk and Tidwell shared time in the first of Thursday’s two games with the finale seeing four innings worth of a five-hitter by Lowe with Pettigrew going the rest of the way.
“One of the positives that came from last week is that in this region format, you see teams for three games, but it’s a playoff format,” Paulk said. “You see the depth of pitching that your team and the others have. It gives you a chance to get guys in pressure situations and see how they perform.”
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