Pitching lifts JD over Toombs
The Toombs County baseball team couldn’t handle Jeff Davis High’s pitching in the second round of the 2023 Georgia High School State Playoffs Saturday as the Yellow Jackets swept the Bulldogs 6-0, 5-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Junior pitchers Duke Stone and Alex Mason shut down the Bulldog bats as Stone hurled a 2-hit shutout in the first game and Mason threw a 1-hitter in the second.
Stone allowed only three baserunners as he walked only one and struck out 15. Mason allowed five baserunners as he walked three and struck out 12.
In the opener, after Stone struck out the side in the top of the first inning, the Jackets got all the runs they needed in the bottom of the first.
Ethan Picanso got a 1-out double, stole third and scored on Mason’s sacrifice fly to right.
In the third, Carter Mullis singled, Stone walked and Ethan Griffin laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. Freshman Treyton Webster then doubled to right for two runs. With two outs, senior Cason Clance drilled a run-scoring double to make it 4-0.
JD got a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. With one on and one out, Mason and Mullis hit back-to-back doubles to make it 6-0.
Meanwhile, Stone struck out the first six batters he faced and retired 21 of the 24 batters he faced, giving up two harmless singles and a walk.
Mullis led Jeff Davis at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double, two singles and two RBI. Ethan Picanso had a single and a double, Webster had a double and two RBI, Clance and Mason both doubled and drove in a run.
In the second game, playing as the visiting team, the Jackets got their first two batters of the game on base with a walk and a hit batter. But the Jackets got only one run, coming on a Mullis single.
Toombs got an unearned run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game 1-1 but that was all the scoring the Bulldogs could manage.
The Jackets also got the first two batters on in the second as Jude Worthington and Colby Beach got back-to-back singles. Two outs later, Picanso singled to center to drive in a run to make it 2-0.
The Jackets didn’t score again until the fifth as Picanso, Mason and Mullis each singled with Mullis’ hit driving in a run. After Stone reached an error, Worthington doubled to make it 4-0.
Jeff Davis got its final run in the top of the seventh as Mason singled and yielded to pinch runner Braydon Lolley. Lolley stole second and went to third on an error. Mullis then hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Lolley.
Five Jackets had two hits apiece in JD’s 11-hit attack. Worthington had a single, a double and an RBI. Mullis singled twice and drove in three runs, Picanso singled twice and drove in a run, and Mason and Webster both singled twice. Beach added a bunt single.
Score by innings:
TCHS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -0
JDHS 1 0 3 0 0 2 x -6
JDHS 1 1 0 0 2 0 1 -5
TCHS 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1
