Jones County built on its strong start to region play last week, blanking Woodland 11-0 before Monday’s 7-5 road loss to Locust Grove, who is unbeaten. That span ran the Diamond Hounds’ region record to 3-1 ahead of this Wednesday’s home contest against Locust Grove.
The Woodland victory gave the Diamond Hounds three region wins by a combined score of 44-0.
“Our message to them is, ‘That is not a surprise, that’s our expectation,’” Greyhounds head coach Noble Coley said. “Woodland came out and battled, but these are things we expect to do. So, it’s not a surprise to us.”
But the rigor of play is expected to toughen up soon like a raw piece of steak.
Following Locust Grove, JCHS plays at Union Grove Friday before the two teams play Monday in Gray. Both of those teams finished within the top four of the region a season ago.
“It’s great to be 3-0, but there’s also a lot more work to do to win a region championship,” Coley said last week. “It’s time to move on to the next one.”
The Greyhounds got going gradually in Wednesday’s win, pushing a single run across in the first before three more in the second, two in the third, and a five-run fifth inning to end the game on the mercy rule.
Davis Upshaw had the big hit in that inning for Jones County, ripping a grand slam.
JCHS kept the pressure up on the basepaths in Wednesday’s win, stealing seven bases with two each by Gavin Simon, Zach Raven, and Chase Hasty.
“We’ve done some things on the basepaths aggressively,” Coley said. “The bats are warming up, but we’ve got to get started sooner, though. When we have chances, we have to strike.”
The acceleration of the Greyhounds’ offense as the game went on made things even easier for sophomore pitcher Cooper Rice, who struck out 10 Wolfpack batters through five innings.
