Diamond Canes Conclude Season

The Monticello Hurricanes’ baseball season came to an end Friday after two rough losses to Thomasville in the first round of state playoff action. The Hurricanes entered the playoffs as the number three seed from Region 4AA.

Head coach Chris Jenkins said the first game was “a tough loss to swallow.” The coach took the blame for the 4-3 loss saying, “If we had made a couple of plays and I had made a better call in the top of the 7th inning, we may very well have pulled it out and won the series.”

Braden Lynch did a good job on the mound for the Hurricanes. “He didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled for seven innings,” the coach said. “We just didn’t do anything offensively the first six innings to help him out.”

In the top of the seventh inning, Max Dotson did a good job of finding a way on to lead off the inning, and Stephen Arena had an outstanding at-bat to move Max to third. Max then got a good read on Josh Disharoon’s grounder and beat the throw home to tie the game at 2-2. Brelan Crowe and Disharoon executed a hit and run, which put runners on second and third bases. Cain Gonzales found a way to get down a squeeze bunt on a pitch that was over his head and in the left-handed batter’s box, which scored the go-ahead run. Gonzales advanced to second on the play, which gave the Hurricanes runner on second and third again.

Coach Jenkins continued, “Had I made the smart move and manufactured another run in this situation, the bottom of the 7th would have been much tougher on Thomasville. I made the mistake of letting the batter swing away, and their shortstop made an outstanding play on a hard-hit ball, which probably saved the game for them.”

In the second game, the Hurricanes made too many mental mistakes early in the game an dug a hole too big to work out of. “I’m disappointed in the outcome of the two playoff games, but I’m still proud of the boys for the way they competed throughout the course of the season,” Coach Jenkins said. “Most people wrote us off, but we were a couple of plays away from finishing one or two in the region.”

Coach Jenkins and the team expressed appreciation to the fans who have supported the team all season at both home and away games. The coach also thanked seniors Stephen Arena, Chad Cain, Brelan Crowe, Cain Gonzales, Garrett Scroggs and Tyler Seawright who played their last high school baseball game Friday.