Baseball season opens
Jeff Davis High’s baseball season got underway last week with the Yellow Jackets taking an 8-7, 10-inning win over visiting Bleckley County last Tuesday, and dropping a couple of games to Class 6A schools Saturday in Leesburg, falling to Wayne County 4-2 and Lee County 5-4.
This weekend, Jeff Davis travels to play a pair of historically strong Class 2A baseball schools in Heard County Friday at 6 p.m. in Franklin and Callaway Saturday at noon in Hogansville. The Saturday game was originally scheduled for 1 p.m.
Heard is 1-2 with a 7-1 win over Model, an 8-7 loss to Bowden and an 8-1 loss to Lovett. Callaway is 1-1, falling 18-8 to Heritage and topping Bowden 6-3.
The Bleckley game was a slugfest as the Royals had 13 hits and the Jackets 12.
Jeff Davis struck first with a 2-run first inning. Garrison Miles started things with a 1-out single followed by a towering 2-run homer over the left field fence by Colby Marchant.
Bleckley tied the game with single runs in the second and fourth but in the bottom of the fourth the Jackets scored two more to go up 4-2.
Jashaun Kirby led off the fourth with a walk followed by a Hamp Hayes single. Matthew White then singled to score Kirby from second. An out later, Britt Metts was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. After a strikeout, Marchant drew a walk to score pinch runner Chad Baucom, leaving the bases load. But another strikeout left three runners stranded on base.
Bleckley fought back and took a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the fifth when the Jackets added two more runs to go back on top 6-5. Kirby singled with one out and was forced out at second on a Hamp Hayes fielder’s choice. With two outs, Matthew White hit a pop fly to left and was safe on an error as Hayes advanced to third. Hayes scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 5-5. Braydon Creech and Britt Metts then drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. On the next pitch, a wild pitch enabled White to score from third.
A 2-run double in the sixth put the Royals back on top 7-6.
In the bottom of the seventh, Hayes got a 1-out single, Creech was safe on an error to move Hayes to third with two outs. Metts then singled to score Hayes and tie the game at 7-7 and send the contest into extra innings.
Bleckley got their lead-off runner on in the eighth but White struck out the next three batters to end the threat.
Kirby came on to pitch in the ninth, retiring the Royals in order. He gave up a pair of 1-out singles in the 10th but retired the next two batters to end the inning.
Meanwhile, the first eight Jacket batters in extra innings were retired but in the bottom of the tenth with two outs, Miles popped up over the Royal shortstop for a single. Then Marchant stepped to the plate and hit a double to left center as Miles scored all the way from first for the game-winning run.
Marchant was 3-for-5 with a single, a double, a homer, and four RBI including the game-winning RBI. Hayes was 3-for-4 with a trio of singles, Metts and White both singled in a run, and Miles, Chaney, Leggett and Kirby each had singles.
Kirby picked up the win in relief. He went two innings, blanking the Royals on two hits, walking none and striking out one. Miles started on the mound, pitching the first two innings, giving up one run on four hits, walking one and striking out four. Braydon Creech threw three innings, giving up four earned runs on five hits, walking one and striking out two. White pitched three innings, giving up one run on two hits, walking one and striking out nine. The four Jacket pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts.
In a battle of Yellow Jackets in Leesburg Saturday, JD had six hits against Wayne County but could get only two runs across the plate in the 4-2 loss.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the third inning, Britt Metts got a 2-out double to left and scored when Garrison Miles singled to left.
Jeff Davis’ other run came in the bottom of the sixth with Wayne on top 4-1. Caleb Leggett drew a 1-out walk and went to second as Matthew Glass grounded out to second. Braydon Creech singled to short, Leggett moved to third and scored on an error.
Creech led the hitting for Jeff Davis, going 2-for-3 with a pair of singles. Miles had a run-scoring single, Metts doubled, and Colby Marchant and Leggett added singles.
Cole Baucom pitched the first four innings, giving up one earned run on five hits, walking none and striking out two. Kirby pitched an inning of relief, yielding two runs on three hits, walking one and striking out none. Creech pitched the final two innings, retiring all six batters he faced to include striking out the side in the sixth.
Lee County used a 3-run third inning to go up 3-0. The Jackets came from behind to tie the game at 3-3 and 4-4 but the Trojans got a run in the bottom of the sixth and held on for the 5-4 victory.
Trailing 3-0 in the fourth, Britt Metts led off the inning with a single, went to second on a Garrison Miles grounder to third, took third on a passed ball and stole home to make it 3-1.
In the fifth, Hamp Hayes walked, Caleb Leggett singled to left pushing pinch runner Clayton Clance to second. Chad Baucom came on to run for Leggett and Kirby walked to load the bases. Ethan Griffin then hit a grounder to the pitcher who threw to home to force out Clance. After a strikeout, the bases were still loaded but with two outs. Metts then singled to right scoring Baucom and Kirby but Griffin was thrown out at home for the third out.
A Lee County triple and sacrifice fly put the Trojans back on top 4-3.
In the top of the sixth, Colby Marchant drew a 1-out walk with Garrett Taylor coming on to run for Marchant. Bubby Chaney hit a liner to the pitcher for an out but Taylor advanced to second. Hayes then hit a hard grounder to short to reach on an error, scoring Taylor from second to tie the game 4-4.
A walk and two Jacket errors in the bottom of the sixth enabled Lee to push an unearned run across the plate and that turned out to be the winning run.
The Jackets managed only three hits, with Metts having a single, a double and two RBI, and Leggett getting a single.
Matthew White started on the mound, going three innings and giving up three runs on five hits, walking none and striking out one. Miles pitched two innings, giving up a run on one hit, walking none and striking out one. Leggett picked up the loss in one inning of relief. He did not allow a hit as the only run he yielded was unearned. He walked none and struck out one.
The Jackets committed five errors in the contest.
Score by innings:
BCHS 0 1 0 1 3 2 0 0 0 0 -7
JDHS 2 0 0 2 2 0 1 0 0 1 -8
WCHS 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 -4
JDHS 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 -2
JDHS 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 -4
LCHS 0 0 3 0 1 1 x -5
