Dragons’ approach pays off

SMACKOVER - Junction City’s aggressive approach at the plate paid off handsomely, as the Dragons held off Smackover for an 8-4 win in a Class 3A-4A District 12 clash between Union County rivals on Monday.

The Dragons (15-7, 7-1) put the Bucks (8-13, 5-5) in a 5-0 hole thanks to an RBI double by Brock McGoogan and an RBI single by Jack Smith in the first coupled with a threerun homer by Charles Hoof in the third.

The Bucks fought back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third, but Junction City tacked on single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings to hold off the Bucks.

All game long, the Dragons were lethal early in the count.

McGoogan, who went 4-for-4 with a walk, two RBIs and three runs scored, had his RBI double in the first and a base hit in the third after swinging at the first pitch.

Bryce Ware, who was on base four times by going 2-for-2 with two walks, also had a base hit on a one-pitch at-bat.

One of the Dragons’ biggest hits of the day also came on a first-pitch swing, as freshman Gabe Richard laced a two-out single to score McGoogan in the sixth to give the Dragons a 7-3 edge.

That would loom large moments later when Cade Schibler belted a solo homer near the scoreboard in right-center in the bottom half of the inning to close the gap

back to three runs.

And while it didn’t come on the first pitch, Hoof’s towering three-run blast to dead center in the third came on a 1-0 pitch.

“That’s one of those things I like,” Junction City coach Joe Paul Hammett said of attacking early in the count.

“I love to hit the first pitch because even in high school, that pitcher is trying to get ahead, and 90 percent of the time, he’s throwing a fastball.

“That’s what we’re looking for, and if we get it and it’s around the plate, we want to jump on it. That’s being aggressive because we’re looking for that pitch, not in certain spots, but if it’s a fastball and we can get to it, we want to hit it.”

Regardless of whether it was on the first pitch or later in the count, the Dragons had no shortage of baserunners.

The Dragons had at least two baserunners in every inning with the exception of the second when they had one.

Overall, the Dragons banged out 13 hits, but never could get the big hit to break the game open, stranding 14 baserunners

in the process.

“We had some big timely hits, but man we left a lot of people on base,” Hammett said.

“We just couldn’t get the next big hit. Some of them hit the ball today that hadn’t been hitting it, so that was a good sign for us. We’re just going to keep plugging along.”

Credit Schibler and later Baylor Brumley for giving the Bucks a chance to make a comeback.

A senior, Schibler scattered nine hits and allowed six runs over 4 1/3 innings. He walked seven and struck out two.

He bounced back after taking a shot to his body after Smith’s scorched comebacker ricocheted after hitting the front of the mound for a run-scoring single in the opening inning.

Brumley entered with runners at first and second with one out in the fifth, and got Keelan Hodge to bounce into a 6-3 double play to get out of trouble.

A sophomore, Brumley allowed the Dragons’ final two runs over 2 2/3 innings. He allowed four hits, walked two, hit a batter and didn’t record any strikeouts.

“Honestly, that’s the way our pitching has been all year,” Smackover coach B.J. Greene said.

“We’ve given up a lot of hits, but we haven’t given up a lot of earned runs because we’ve made a lot of defensive mistakes. Cade never really had his best stuff, but he was battling. With us and Junction, it’s always going to be a dogfight. It just didn’t come out our way.”

But while the Dragons were able to cash in on some of their opportunities, the Bucks squandered a golden scoring opportunity in the second, coming up empty after loading the bases with nobody out.

“When they got runners on base, they put the ball in play,” Greene said.

“We had the bases loaded and nobody out and had three straight strikeouts from our seven, eight and nine guys.

You can’t beat good teams like that. They’re well-coached and they proved it tonight.”

Although the Bucks failed to dent the scoreboard in the second, they scored three runs in the third with Nick Impson drilling an RBI double before later scoring on a wild pitch.

Tucker Evans, who was 2-for-4, doubled, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error for the Bucks’ first run.

The last time Hodge faced the Bucks in Smackover, it was in the finals of the 8-3A District Tournament last spring.

On that night as a freshman, Hodge won a pitcher’s duel over Smackover ace Beau Burson with a three-hitter to lead the Dragons to the district crown.

On Monday, Hodge combined with Ware on a six-hitter, combining for 15 strikeouts.

Hodge fanned 11 over five innings of work, allowing five hits and three runs along with a walk and two hit batsmen.

Ware walked two and struck out four while allowing one hit and one run in two innings out of the bullpen.

“Keelan wasn’t as sharp

as he has been, but our defense wasn’t as sharp either,” Hammett said.

“He had that one long inning there in the third, but at this time of year, you want to play well enough to win, and we did that today.

“Any time you get a win up here at Smackover, it’s a good one for us, and plus it’s conference. We’ve got to keep getting better.”

Although the Bucks have taken their lumps at times during the season, Greene said his team has improved as the season has gone on.

“I think we’ve improved. Are we where we need to be? No way. There’s some times that we play really good baseball, and there’s some times that we play like we’re a very young

team,” Greene said.

“But in the grand scheme of things, our kids have gotten better throughout the year.

“We’re hitting the ball a lot better. It’s hard to say that when you strike out 15 times in a game, but we had several kids foul off a lot of balls right behind the plate.

“When he is fouling it off right behind the catcher and the umpire, he’s right there. He just missed the pitch.

“I think we had like eight or nine swings like that. We have improved, but we have a long way to go.

“We’ve got to hope that we can get there before the next two or three weeks so we can get ready for the postseason.”