The Warriors came into the seventh inning leading with a score of 9-2. Feeling confident and close to victory, starting pitcher #5 Luke Dickens was replaced by #25 Kole Page to hopefully close out the win for the Warriors. However, the Lions finally woke up and scored a total of five runs in this inning. Page struggled throughout this inning walking in two of those runs for the Lions and allowing two hits from #11 Danny Palmer and #7 Jason Lockhart.
Noticing that the
Lions were creeping their way closer to victory, Oconee coach Tom Gooch subbed
in #21 Sean Hogg on the mound to end this game for good. However, he allowed a
total of three runs to be scored resulting in a score of 9-7 with two outs. He
finally got the job done and struck out #11 Danny Palmer to end the game on a
strong note.
Although Hebron
Christian came alive in the seventh inning and made this a two run game, the
Warriors lit it up in the bottom of the third inning with a total of seven runs
and six hits having that two run cushion become very crucial. #4 Evan Kessler
was a star hitter for Oconee County leading the team with a total of three
RBIs, two of those occurring in the bottom of the third inning. When asked how
his performance impacted the teams’ win he said, “This definitely helped
towards the end when they started to come back and score runs.”
In addition, Oconee
County pitcher #5 Luke Dickens had an RBI double to center field in the bottom
of the third inning. Not only did he have a powerful bat, but he also carried
the team on the mound pitching six innings with five strikeouts and allowing
only two runs. When asked about Oconee County’s overall performance Luke
Dickens said “It wasn’t as close of a game as the score said it was.”
This is Nicole Shearin from Grady Sports.
