Phoenix open 7-4A games with series win
♦ Sonoraville begins Region play by winning 3-game set with NW Whitfield
Baseball legend Casey Stengal, when he managed the Yankees in the 1950s, used to say, “they don’t pay me to win every game. Just two out of every three.”
Sonoraville baseball skipper Deron Walraven knows the feeling.
To ensure the six teams in Region 7-4A see a different starting pitcher every time they play each other, the league that includes Sonoraville plays its three games against each other in a week’s time instead of three times spread out over the course of a few weeks. The teams play once on Tuesday and then hold Friday doubleheaders to get their 15 league games played.
And the Phoenix began their first baseball journey in the Region 7-4A last week, taking two-out-of-three against Northwest Whitfield. Sure, they wanted the sweep, but in baseball, two-out-ofthree is always good.
“Making sure we take at least two out of three is our goal in these (Region 7-4A) series,” Walraven said. “I mean we want to win every game we play. And we want to win all three games of every series we play here in Region. And we’re working hard to do that. And our kids are working hard and playing hard to do that. But our goal is to make sure we get at least two out of three because every time you do that, you can put that team behind you (as far as the standings and tiebreakers).”
They began last week in the best way they could imagine, defeating the Bruins, 10-0 on Tuesday in a five-inning mercy rule win. Then, with the threat of bad weather on Thursday and Friday and knowing how difficult it can be to reschedule, not just games, but doubleheaders
like the teams in the Region play, they moved the scheduled Games Two and Three up 48 hours to Wednesday in Whitfield County.
“We wound up playing three games in just a real short amount of time with the game on Tuesday and then coming right back Wednesday and playing two more, but I’m glad we did it because of the weather,” Walraven said. “It was not good Thursday or Friday. But we feel good that we got those three games in and we feel really good that we won two of them. Like I said, we wanted to win all three and that was our goal. But we’ll take two out of three.”
Just 24 hours after silencing NW Whitfield, the Bruins returned the favor at home with an 8-2 victory over Sonoraville in the first game of their Wednesday twinbill.
But in the nightcap, Sonoraville got good pitching and senior outfielder Zevyn Ferguson slugged a late home run to propel a 4-2 win to get the series.
“It was our first series in this Region and so we felt real good about it,” Walraven said. “We were really thinking about the sweep after the first game, but in that second game, they came out and played well and we didn’t. But that’s baseball. And we came right back from that loss to get the win in that second game, so we’re 2-1 in the Region and we’ll take it. And now we want to build on that.”
And they get that chance this week against Carrollton Central with the teams
to face off three times. The teams were in Carrollton for the first game Tuesday (details of thtat game were not available at press time) before they come back Thursday to play Games Two and Three, beginning at 5 p.m. (The games were originally scheduled for Friday but because, again the threat of inclement weather, the games have been moved up 24 hours).
Central began this week 5-11 overall and, most importantly 0-3 in the league after getting swept by Cedartown, which is now 3-0, last week. The other 7-4A opening-round series last week had Heritage also going to 3-0 in the league with a sweep of Southeast Whitfield.
That means Cedartown and Heritage are tied for first to start this week in the 7-4A with Sonoraville third at 2-1. NW
Whitfield is 1-2 and in fourth while Central and Southeast Whitfield County are both 0-3.
So if the Phoenix can keep the Lions in the struggling column this week, they have a chance to not only climb in the standings, but put more distance between themselves and another region foe in their quest for the postseason.
Despite the three losses last week, Central did play Cedartown tough last week, dropping Game One Tuesday by a 1-0 count. Then those teams moved their originallyscheduled-for-Friday doubleheader up to Thursday and Cedartown took the first game 8-4 and the second game, 5-2, for the sweep that has them one of two early unbeatens.
“Central has a good team, so we’ve got to be ready to play,” Walraven said. “But every team in this Region is good, so we’ve got to be ready every time we play. But it was a good first week for us and we want to do at least that well, if not even better this week.”
In their Game One win over Northwest Whitfield, senior Zach Lyles was the man, pitching all five innings and recording the shutout, while also hitting a two-run home run to spark the offense.
“We played as well as we’ve played all year,” Walraven said. of that win. “And it was nice to have an (easy win). We haven’t had too many games this year where we’ve had a lead like that at the end. We’ve played a lot of close games that went to the very end, so to have a game with a big lead late like we had was nice. But we played well. Zach pitched real well, we played good defense and we had a lot of kids get hits.”
But 24 hours later, their fortunes turned and they fell 8-2 to go to 1-1 in the league. However, they quickly turned the page, with junior pitcher Jaxon Pate and senior hurler Kannon England combining to silence the Bruin bats and win the rubber match.
The Phoenix scored runs in four different innings for their offense.
They got on the board with a run in the top of the second and built their lead to 2-0 with another one in the third.
Northwest Whitfield got a run in the bottom of the third, but the Phoenix would add one more in the fourth and held a 3-1 lead until Ferguson hit his round-tripper for their final tally in the seventh.
The Bruins did get one of those back in the bottom of the seventh to get the tying run to the plate but would get no closer.
Sonoraville began this week with a 9-3 record.