Jackets lose heartbreaker

By Editor | June 26, 2024 |

Jeff Davis High’s baseball team suffered a pair of heart-breaking losses to North Cobb Christian School Monday in Hazlehurst to end their hopes of a state championship.
North Cobb came into the game with a 30-4 record and the No. 1 ranking among the state’s Class AA teams. The Eagles downed the Yellow Jackets 7-2 in the opening game of a double header and won 2-1 in eight innings in the second game. North Cobb improved to 32-4 while the Jackets finished with a 23-9 record.
The second game was a particularly hard pill to swallow as senior right-hander Alex Mason had a masterful performance on the mound, hurling a 4-hitter and fanning 15 Eagles. North Cobb’s winning run in the bottom of the eighth was unearned.
In the opener, JD starting pitcher Colby Beach got off to a shaky start, hitting the first two batters he faced and walking the next. But the junior then hitched up his belt and struck out the next three batters to end the inning.
After retiring the Eagles in order in the second, Beach got into trouble again in the third, giving up a double and a walk to start the inning. But a fielder’s choice, a strikeout and a fly out quelled the uprising.
In the fourth, Beach’s luck ran out. A 1-out single, a double, a sacrifice fly and another single put the visitors on top 2-0. Beach then walked a batter and hit another and a bases-loaded double upped North Cobb’s lead to 5-0.
The Jackets tried to battle back as singles by Duke Stone, Mason and Beach cut the lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the fourth. In the fifth, Jackson Sayer led off the inning with a bunt single, went to second on an error, and took third and scored on another error to make it 5-2.
But North Cobb got a pair of runs in the sixth off reliever Treyton Webster to account for the final score.
The Jacket hitting in the opener consisted of five singles, one each by Stone, Mason, Beach, Sayer and Ethan Picanso.
Beach went 3 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on five hits, walking three, hitting three and striking out six. Webster went 2 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on two hits, walking five and striking out two. In his first varsity appearance on the mound after recovering from Tommy John surgery last year, Jonathan Bohannon pitched one inning, blanking North Cobb on no hits, a walk and no strikeouts.
In the second game, Mason put on what may have been his best performance of his career, pitching against one of the best hitting teams in the state.
In the first inning, the Eagles almost scored as a double to center field with a runner at second led to the Eagle runner at second trying to score. But teams test centerfielder Treyton Webster’s arm at their own peril and Webster easily gunned down the runner at home plate.
Mason struck out the side in the second, retired North Cobb in order in the third, issued a pair of walks in the fourth, but ended the threat with a pair of strikeouts, retired the Eagles in order in the fifth — including a pair of strikeouts, and finally got in trouble in the sixth as he gave up a run on a walk and a pair of singles before fanning the next two batters. He struck out the side again in the seventh.
In the fateful eighth, an uncharacteristic dropped infield popup put the first batter on second base. After Mason struck out the next batter, Coach Paul Glass called for an intentional walk, creating a force out at any bag. But the next batter singled to deep center out of Webster’s range to gun down the runner at home.
The Jackets’ run came in the second as Carter Mullis got a 1-out single and, after Mullis advanced to second, Webster singled to right to score Mullis.
The Jackets out-hit the Eagles 7-4, led by Webster with a pair of singles and an RBI, two singles by Sayer, a double by Mason and singles by Picanso and Mullis.
Mason went 7 1/3 innings, giving up one earned run on four hits, four walks and 15 strikeouts.
Score by innings:
NCCS 0 0 0 5 0 2 0 -7
JDHS 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 -2