By: Drew Harris
03-09-15
(Cleveland) We wrote a story last week about White County’s rare double-header on February 28th in which they traveled to Jefferson and Central Gwinnett. The Warriors split those decisions. High school baseball teams have been known to play two games in one day, but not many play two games in two different locations. The weather over the first few weeks of the baseball season has forced many coaches to just crumple the paper schedule and take on a “play when you can” mentality. So if such a double-header is considered rare, what would you say about three games in three different locations on the same day? Unheard of, right? Not any more. The Warriors did just that on Saturday. They opened up the long day with a 7-5 loss to Lumpkin at Coolray Field (see separate story). Then the team quickly boarded a bus and traveled to Commerce (Commerce won 11-6). Finally, the Warriors finished up by coming back home and beating Central Gwinnett 15-5 in 6 innings.
In Game 2, the Warriors got a lead-off homer by Trent Morgan to take the early lead. Commerce would get their bats going though starting in the 2nd as they rolled off 10 unanswered runs over the next three innings. The Warriors would get three runs in the top of the 7th, capped off by a Chris Jackson 2-run homerun. But the late rally wasn’t enough as Commerce got the final out to preserve the 11-6 victory.
White County would salvage game three with a run-rule victory over Central Gwinnett. Coach Wright rested some of the regulars in the contest after the long day. Central Gwinnett ran out to a quick 3-0 lead after the 1st, and 5-1 after the top of the 2nd inning. But that would be all the Black Knights would get. The Warriors put up a 4-spot in the bottom of the 2nd to tie things up at 5-5. After adding a run in the 3rd, White County broke things open with eight runs in the 5th. A single run in the bottom of the 6th ended things early with White County leading by 10 or more runs after five innings. The Warriors got huge games from Stetson Cheeks (4-4, 2 RBI, 2 runs, BB), Jay Taylor (3-4, 3 RBI, 2 runs, BB), Trey Allen (3-3, 2 RBI, 3 runs), and Nick Moore (3-3, RBI, 2 runs). John Henry Mullis finished with 3 RBI, and Sean Kennedy and Trey Cantrell each added 1 RBI.
The win moved the Warriors to 2-5 on the young season. Their last non-region contest is scheduled for Monday at Warrior Field vs. Commerce. Region play is scheduled to begin Friday at home against Stephens County.
