Houston County matched Starr’s Mill in hits. It just couldn’t manufacture the same amount of runs. Thus it fell 7-3 to the Fayetteville squad Tuesday at home.
Neither could crack the scoreboard in the first four innings. The Bears did have a pair of one-out singles in the first – Gage Harrelson (1-4) and Treyson Hughes (1-3 with a run scored) – as well as a two-out walk to Andrew Dunford (2-2 with a walk and run scored) to load the bases, but had all eliminated on a ground ball.
They also had a leadoff single by Drew Burress (1-3 with a walk) negated by a double play in the bottom of the third.
Starr’s Mill on the other hand, turned an leadoff error into an inning in the fifth. It followed that up with back-to-back-to-back singles to get out to a 3-0 lead. It pushed one more across before the inning was over.
The Panthers made it 7-0 with three more in the sixth; another double play eliminated Christian Davis’ leadoff single in the bottom of the inning (he was 1-3 with an RBI).
Walks – six in all – finally helped Houston County get on board in the sixth. Hughes lead off with a free pass. Dunford singled him to second where Trent Ringer (1-3 with an RBI and run scored) brought him home. Garrett Hortman (0-2 with a walk) walked. Dunford scored on a wild pitch during his at bat and Ringer scored on Davis’ ground out.
That was to end the scoring for both teams.
Ringer started and took the loss for the Bears. He went four innings, gave up five hits and four runs. Harrelson worked an inning and gave up one hit and two runs while walking two and Eli Sikes and Carson McFadden each threw an inning. Sikes gave up a hit and a run, struck out two and walked one. McFadden was perfect minus a walk.
Houston County dropped to 12-5 with the non-region loss while Starr’s Mill improved to 11-6.
Elsewhere, Warner Robins dealt Northside another loss. The Demons, who beat the Eagles 16-5 back on March 10, won 17-8.
It was close until the fifth. In fact, it was tied at 8 until that point. Warner Robins scored four in the first and four in the second. Northside scored three in the first, three in the second and two in the bottom of the first to make it that way.
The Demons’ six was unanswered. In fact, they went on to add two more in the sixth and one in the seventh.
The loss was Northside’s 13th in 16 games. Warner Robins improved to 5-5.
