Through all of the adversity — whether through a pair of weather delays or from trailing three times on Tuesday against Union Grove — Jones County kept fighting.
In the end, the Lady Greyhounds cashed in big, plating three runs across in the ninth inning for a big 8-7 region win among two teams fighting for the top spot in the region. Tuesday’s victory put JCHS and Ola as the only unbeaten teams in the region with 6-0 records, ahead of Union Grove with a mark of 3-2. Jones County hosts Ola Sept. 3, a game that will for all accounts be for sole possession of first place thanks to the Lady Hounds’ multiple rallies last week.
“Coming into the year, you kind of know who the top four teams (in the region) are going to be,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Tripp Burt said. “We were able to take care of business and keep ourselves in the driver’s seat where we can control what we can control and not rely on somebody else. Our girls, they’re aware and played hard to achieve that.”
The win against Union Grove is one of multiple recent wins by Jones County in close games. After winning the first five games of the season by the mercy rule, three of Jones County’s last four games have been won by four runs or fewer.
“We’ve had a few close ones, finally,” Burt said. “We came back three times against Union Grove, and that’s a big deal. That shows their resilience, fight, and the belief that they have in themselves.” Jones County, which is also 9-0 overall, returns to region play Thursday at Stockbridge.
The Lady Hounds went out front early against Union Grove, leading 2-0 after two innings following RBIs by Sydney Hawkins and Raylee Harris. The Wolverines countered in the third with three runs to lead 3-2, but Jones County had an answer of its own.
Rylee Johnson played a role in manufacturing a run, grounding out to score Genna Maki, tying the score at 3-3 through four frames.
But after the Wolverines pushed two more runs across the plate, the Lady Hounds found themselves with their backs against the wall again.
They weren’t rattled.
After Rylee Johnson reached on a triple on the sixth, Hawkins put the ball into play, forcing a groundout to trim the Union Grove lead to 6-5. Needing a run to at minimum force extra innings in the seventh, Jones County did just that.
Marissa Moore singled before stealing second, moving over on an Ensley Barnes single before scoring on a Kadi Sargent sacrifice fly, tying the game to send it to extra innings, where a three-run ninth inning won it for Jones County, keeping the Lady Hounds at the top of the region standings.
“This group has had high expectations from the beginning, they believe in themselves. We talked about never getting down and never being out of it. They did a good job fighting,” Burt said. “Some of the things we’ve been preaching, about never giving up, they see that and say, ‘hey, we can do this.’
