‘Canes Defeat Macon Co. and Crawford Co.

The varsity baseball ’Canes have been on a winning streak defeating both Macon Co. and Crawford Co. in the last week.

The ’Canes defeated Macon Co. 11-1 Tuesday, in a cold afternoon game that ended in five innings.

The pitchers mound saw three pitchers for the ’Canes beginning with Dustin Womack, continuing with Walt McMichael, and Chad Cain closed out the game.

Between the three pitchers only one run was allowed and they earned five strikeouts and only four hits.

Offensively, the entire team did well throughout the five inning game, earning seven runs in the second, one in the third and fourth and two in the fifth.

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The team’s hitting was led by Patrick Clement who went 3-3 with three singles, and a walk and earned 3 RBIs. Also, Justin Bradley had an outstanding triple and earned 2 RBIs in the second, and added a double in the fourth. Aaron Newton, Tony Shumate, Chase Caron and Brelan Crowe all went 2 for 3.

“Coming off a big win, like the one we had against Crawford, and with the conditions being what they were, it would have been very easy for us to have a lackluster performance. So I was glad to see us remain focused,” said head coach Chris Jenkins.

The ’Canes baseball team also defeated Crawford County last Friday 4-3 on the road.

“That was a big region win for us. Crawford is one of the more talented teams in the region, and is expected to be one of the top two or three teams when it is all said and done. So we had to come out and play a near flawless game, and that is exactly what we did.

“Rarely does a high school team have a game where they don’t walk anybody, or commit any errors, and we were able to accomplish that Friday,” said Head Coach Chris Jenkins.

Sophomore Tyler Mote was on the mound for the ’Canes and had another strong outing, going all seven innings, scattering nine hits.

“He did a great job of keeping the ball down and pitching to contact, which kept the defense on their toes behind him. We didn’t hit the ball as well as we would have liked, but we did a good job of working the count, drawing a few walks, and moving guys up when we had the chance.”

The big blow was Justin Bradley’s 2-out, 2-strike triple, that scored the first three runs of the game.

The fourth run was scored by Walt McMichael, who walked then advanced to second on a sacrifice by Dustin Womack.

This win put the ’Canes in a tie for second place in the region.

Coach Jenkins commented, “there is a lot of ball left this season, so we have to keep working and improving. With two wins over teams that we were not expected to beat (Taylor and Crawford), we won’t be able to sneak up on anybody from here on out. But this is a hard working group of kids, who are excited about this win, but I know that they aren’t satisfied and won’t get complacent.”

The ’Canes are scheduled to travel to face Bleckley Co. today, March 28 at 5:30 p.m. and play Putnam at home, Tuesday, April 2 at 5 p.m.