The Houston County Bears baseball team played the Locust Grove Wildcats in their third and final game of the LakePoint Tournament earlier this afternoon and the result was a dominate Bears’ victory 11-1. The Black, Silver, and White got the scoring started in the top half of the first when Ethan Buffone hit a sac fly to drive in Vick Gann to make the score 1-0 HoCo going into the last of the first.
The Bears doubled it’s lead in the first of the second when Vick Gann hit a sac fly to drive in Will Allen to push the score to 2-0 in favor of the Black, Silver, and White. The top of the third is where HoCo blew the game open and it started when Isaiah Galason was walked to carousel the bases to drive in Caleb Adkison to make the score 3-0 Bears and later, Logan Elble would be HBP to carousel the bases to drive in Ethan Buffone to make the score 4-0 HoCo.
Troy Carpenter would score on a wild pitch to push the score to 5-0 and Ty Waters would come up to bat and he would hit a two-rbi single to drive in Isaiah Galason and Logan Elble to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Black, Silver, and White going into the bottom of the third.
In the top of the fourth, Christian Wahiwe would hit an rbi single to drive in Troy Carpenter to make the score 8-0 Bears which would be the score after five innings of play. Eli Stephens would hit a sac fly to drive in Logan Elble to make the score 9-0 HoCo going into the last of the sixth.
The designated visitors would plate two more runs in the top half of the seventh when Noah Odom singled on a hard ground ball and Isaiah Galason would score on an E4 to make it 10-0 Bears and Hudson Sherman would hit an rbi double to drive in Caleb Adkison to make the score 11-0 HoCo going into the last of the seventh.
The Black, Silver, and White however, were unable to preserve the shutout as Locust Grove loaded the bases with no outs and were able to hit a one out rbi single via Dylan Driver to drive in Liam Collier to make the score 11-1 in favor of the Bears. HoCo would be able to get the final two outs to prevent any more runs from scoring to win 11-1 and finish 2-1 in the LakePoint Tournament.
The Black, Silver, and White’s SP senior Carson Small made his return to the bump for the first time since the season opener at Lowndes on February 13th after dealing with an injury and he went two innings and surrendered no runs on one hit, walking none, and striking out one in the process.
Relievers Max Wilhide, Isaac Velez, and Logan Elble combined to allow one run on two hits, walking three, and striking out six in five relief innings of work. Eight Bears recorded an rbi led by Ty Waters with two followed by Vick Gann, Hudson Sherman, Eli Stephens, Ethan Buffone, Isaiah Galason, Logan Elble, and Christian Wahiwe with one a piece. Dylan Driver recorded the Wildcats’ lone rbi of the contest.
Locust Grove’s two pitchers Christian Colon and Dylan Driver combined to allow 11 runs (eight earned) on 11 hits, walking 12, and striking out two in the process. HoCo improves to 19-6 overall and will make the trip back home to get some rest and return to region play next Tuesday at home against Lee Co as they look for another region title.
The Wildcats fall to 15-8 overall and are getting prepped to play the Newton Rams in just a few minutes. HoCo committed one error whie Locust Grove committed three errors
