STATESBORO — Morgan County’s Hudson Reed broke up a scoreless tie with a two-out homer in the bottom of the fifth and the Bulldogs piled on eight more runs in the sixth to finish off the sweep of Pierce County to clinch the Class AA title Monday night winning 9-0.
The second-seed Bulldogs (36-4) sent 14 batters to the plate during the decisive sixth inning pulling away from a 1-0 advantage, courtesy of Reed’s roundtripper to leftcenter off Emmitt Hall (5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 K, 3 BB), to beat the Bears (33-6).
It marked top-seed PCHS’s sixth consecutive loss in the state championship round and third time being swept (Lovett - 1994, North Hall 2017) in four trips. The Bears’ lone victory came in the 2012 finals in Game 1 vs. Appling County.
Hall and Caylem Richardson (4.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 8 K, 1 BB), who worked four innings of relief in the series opener, matched goose eggs for four innings. Tyler Mull and Davis Strickland finished the onehitter with Strickland striking out the three batters he faced in the seventh.
Pierce County’s lone hit of the game was a two-out single by Jack McClellan’s (1-for-4) in the first inning. Chance Williams was PCHS’s only other base runner drawing a two-out walk in the third. He would still second extending his seasonrecord to 51 thefts in 53 attempts (96 percent) and 86 total over the past two seasons.
The Morgan County pitching trio combined to retire the final 13 batters after the Williams walk with four consecutive 1-2-3 frames to end the game.
Richardson threw 8.1 innings over the two games allowing just two hits and an unearned run. The left-hander fanned 14 and walked one throwing 125 pitches (64 in Game 1 relief, 61 in Game 2 start) including 89 for strikes.
Hall gave up a leadoff double to start the Bulldogs’ first, stranded two batters in the second, and two more in the third. He retired eight straight batters from the third inning until two outs in the fifth when Reed deposited a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left-center.
Morgan County would break the game open in the sixth, the second time in as many games they exploded in that inning. The Bulldogs plated four runs in rallying to win Game 1 6-4.
Brantley Willis (.1 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 K, 2 BB, 2 WP) and Colt Hickox (.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 K, 2 BB, 1 WP) worked the sixth inning for the Bears.
The duo surrendered five hits (two singles, three doubles), walked four, hit a batter and uncorked three wild pitches. They combined to throw 51 pitches with just 23 being strikes (45%).
The three extra base hits by Morgan County in the uprising knocked home six of the eight runs. A oneout double, the third of eight consecutive batters reaching, drove home the first run of the inning. An ensuing first-pitch, two-run single upped the lead to 4-0.
A two-run double two batters later increased the Bulldogs’ advantage to 6-0. A two-out, bases loaded double cleared the bases extending the lead to the final 9-0 mark.
