GC holds off late DC threat
With just one three-game regular season series remaining on the schedule, Gordon Central High School baseball is looking for a couple of more victories.
They won their second game this year and their first Region game in a while on Monday, holding off a late Dade County rally to beat the Trojans, 9-8, and get away from the 0-for they were dealing with in Region 7-2A.
“It was a good win for us,” Gordon Central head baseball coach Austin Norrell said. “The boys played well. We had a lot of guys getting hits early and that got us some runs. Our pitchers threw strikes. It got a little close there at the end, but the bottom line is we finished the game and that was good to see.”
With an early offensive output, the Warriors took a 9-2 lead into the fifth inning and then were able to hold on.
Gordon Central scored three runs in the second and then four more in the fourth and looked to be in good shape before the Trojans made them sweat a little bit at the end.
“It is good to win that type of close ballgame,” Norrell said. “It shows the players that even if we’re trying to hold a lead late in the game, on the road, if we make good pitches and play good defense, then we can get the outs we need to get the job done. But the kids looked determined the whole game and I think it shows they’re still fighting. And getting to end of the season, I take that as a very positive sign for the future.”
Senior second baseman Harrison Benton had a big bases-loaded triple to spark the offense while sophomore catcher Peyton Chastain and junior first baseman Skylar Hill each had two hits apiece and drove in a couple of runs to aid the win that dealt a big blow to not only Dade County’s playoff seeding, but their entire hopes.
Sophomore Carson Tidwell and junior Peyton Wilson combined to get the pitching victory with each of them recording big outs when they needed them.
“They both did a great job,” Norrell said. “Dade County has a very good offense and I know that they were able to get some hits and some runs off of us, but I also know Carson and Peyton threw strikes and gave us a chance.”
Their other victory this year was a 7-3 team over Osborne High School out of Marietta. That win was their first in three years and Norrell said it was a clean victory for his team.
“We definitely played our best of the year against Osborne,” Norell, a former star catcher at Calhoun and highlytouted high school prospect, said. “We got outstanding pitching that day. We played excellent defense. We had a lot of big hits in the game. We just played a real good ballgame. And I think that game, along with the Dade County game, and some others that we’ve been competitive in, has shown the kids what we’re capable of. There’s talent here, we just need to continue to learn to play the game.
He said the high school is working hard to build a feeder program through Ashworth Middle School and other youth programs in the area so that players joining the program have already been playing the game at a high level for a while.
“That’s one thing I have met with Coach (Brock) Hilley and we talked about making sure the kids are learning the finer parts of the game,” Norrell said. “We want to make sure they know where to go with the baseball. We want to make sure they know which base to throw too. We want them to know how to hit the cut-off man. Just all the little things that are so big in winning a ballgame, we want to make sure they’re learning that at the younger levels, so we don’t have to teach it at the varsity level, when you’re hoping a player will know that type of stuff.
“But that’s one thing. We also want to get the kids playing more baseball during the summer and the fall, but at Gordon Central, we share a lot of the athletes. A lot of the same guys that play baseball also play another sport or even two, so that’s something we’ve just got to work through. But I definitely am hoping that
once our season ends, our guys are playing baseball because that’s how you keep getting better.”
They will end the regular season and the Region 7-2A schedule this week with a three-game series against Pepperell, which goes into the week in third place in the league with a solid 10-4 mark.
The first game is set for 5 p.m. Monday in Lindale before the team plays its last home 5 p.m. Wednesday against the Dragons. Then teams are then back in Lindale Friday for the finale with the first pitch scheduled for 5 o’clock.
Norrell says he wants his team to end the year feeling good about the direction the team is heading in.
“I want to see us compete,” he said. “I want to see us go out and play as hard as we can because I believe when we play as hard as we can, which we did against Dade County and Osborne, good
things will happen. And I think the kids have seen the results that come from playing hard, so I want to us just go out and compete and play good baseball and have some fun.”
The Region 7-2A has been more than solid all year with Model, Coosa, and Pepperell all fighting for the top three spots.
Model was leading everyone with a 12-2 mark in the league going into this weekend’s action and they held a lead over Coosa and Pepperell, which each had four district losses. Then Fannin County was in fourth place at 7-8 and the Rebels were a game ahead of Dade County in the loss column with the Trojans sitting 6-9 in the league.
Chattooga is last in the district without a win on the season as the Indians are 0-19 but for some reason, Gordon Central and Chattooga did not play each other this year.