Baseball Season Over For DCHS
By EDDY GIFFORD
Sports Writer
Sports Writer
Photo by Eddy Gifford – The Wolverines’ River McBryar fires off a pitch in action last week against the Armuchee Indians. The Wolverines season came to a close, finishing 7-21 overall, 3-15 in region play. Pepperell, Darlington, Trion, and Armuchee will represent region 1A-7 in the state playoffs starting this week.
The Dade County High School Wolverine baseball team headed into the final week of the season with a full slate of games, the final game with Trion and a three-game series with Armuchee. Four games in five days at the end of a long season is a tough way to end the year.
Traveling to Trion on Monday, Dade County got off to a good start. With one out, a walk, hit by pitch, and another walk loaded the bases.
Parker Hill then grounded out to the shortstop, scoring Mason Gatlin from third and giving the Wolverines the early lead.
The Bulldogs scored a pair of runs in the third inning to take the lead and dominated the Wolverines from that point on, taking the win 11-1 in five innings.
The Wolverines managed just one hit, a single by Kaiden Hubbard who also pitched four innings, giving up eight hits, eight runs (four earned), while striking out four and walking one.
The win gave Trion a series sweep, winning 15-0, 9-0, and 11-1.
TB: Hubbard 1
HBP: Jordan
E: Hill, Jordan
On Tuesday, the Wolverines hosted the Armuchee Indians in the first game of a three-game series with the Indians needing a sweep to make the playoffs.
The Indians took the lead in the second inning when they scored a pair of runs to go up 2-0. They would then add three more runs in the third to go up 5-0.
Dade’s pitching then shut them out the rest of the game.
The Wolverines managed a run in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 5-1 and then managed another run in the bottom of the seventh but that was all they would get and fell to the Indians 5-2.
The Wolverines out hit the Indians eight to four, but 14 strikeouts wiped out any chances of scoring more runs.
Jax Guinn, McBryar, and Hubbard had two hits each for Dade. Guinn pitched four innings, giving up three hits and five runs while walking four and striking out three. McBryar came in relief, pitching three innings, giving up one hit, and striking out two.
2B: Gatlin, McBryar
3B: Hubbard
TB: Hubbard 4, McBryar 3, Guinn 2, Gatlin 2, Jordan 1
SB: Gatlin
E: Dean, Shavers
On Thursday, April 18, the Wolverines traveled to Armuchee for the second game of the series.
The Wolverines got off to a good start, scoring an unearned run in the top of the first inning to take the early lead, 1-0.
The Indians came out swinging in the bottom of the first, scoring three runs to take the lead 3-1, and they never looked back from there.
Armuchee scored one in the second, four in the third, and three in the fourth to take the win 11-1 in five innings.
Gatlin picked up the only hit for the Wolverines who recorded eight errors in the game, resulting in seven unearned runs. Gatlin pitched four innings giving up six hits, 11 runs (four earned), walking four, and striking out three.
TB: Gatlin 1
HBP: McBryar
E: Shavers 3, Jordan 2, McBryar 2, Dean
The Wolverines hosted the Indians in their final game of the season on Friday. A win by the Indians and they get the fourth seed in region and move on to the first round of the playoffs.
Armuchee struck first, scoring three in the top of the second inning to take the lead. They then added six in the third to take a commanding 9-0 lead before Dade was able to score.
In the bottom of the third, the Wolverines pushed across three runs, cutting the Indian lead to 9-3. The Indians then scored two runs in the top of the fourth to go up 11-3.
Dade scored a run in the bottom of the fifth, but Armuchee put the game away in the top of the sixth, scoring seven runs and walking away with a big 18-4 win and a spot in the playoffs.
Guinn, Gatlin, and Levi Jordan had two hits each for the Wolverines who also committed five errors in the game.
McBryar took the loss with Hubbard coming in in relief.
2B: Jordan
TB: Jordan 3, Guinn 2, Gatlin 2, McBryar 1
E: Dean 2, Shavers, Hubbard, Gatlin
The Wolverines ended the season losing their last 13 games and a 7-22 overall record, going 3-15 in region play.
Pepperell won the region with a 16-2 region record and 26-3 overall followed by Darlington at 15-3, 19-9, Trion 13-5, 16-8, Armuchee 8-10, 12-16, and Chattooga 8-10, 10-18. Coosa finished the season 0-18, 0-27.
Pepperell, Darlington, Trion, and Armuchee start play this week in the state playoffs.
