Sports

Stubbs, 182 posterize 30

• Behind a complete-game from Turner County’s Justin Stubbs, who worked in the cotton fields all day, Leesburg Post 182 defeated region foe Albany Post 30, 9-1, at Paul Eames Sports Complex on Thursday.

Derek Barichello

ALBANY — First, Justin Stubbs put a stop to the boll weevil.

Then he halted the Albany Post 30 lineup.

Stubbs, who was the starting pitcher for Leesburg Post 182 on Thursday, woke up at 5 a.m. and spent eight hours working in the cotton fields, then arrived at Paul Eames Sports Complex just in time to record his first complete game victory, 9-1, against his team’s region rival — all in a day’s work.

“I’ve been scouting cotton all day,” said Stubbs, with a sunburned face to match Post 182’s red jerseys. “I just got off work and made it in time. I was happy because I’ve been looking forward to showing (my team) what I could do.”

And after eight hours and eight innings under the hot sun, Stubbs made sure he finished what he started.

“We were looking at our lineups and I asked him if we should make a change,” Post 182 coach Steve Glover laughed. “He told me if I took him out, he was going to kill me, so I let him pitch.”

After allowing just one run on six hits and striking out seven, the Turner County product still getting acclimated with his new teammates made quite the impression on Glover.

“That’s as good as I’ve seen this year,” said Glover, whose first place Leesburg club improved to 5-1 in the region, winning both games against Post 30 this season. “It was exactly what we needed with already being down on pitching. It’ll be a tremendous boost for us.”

Meanwhile, in the first base dugout, it was more of the same old story for Post 30 as they once again played close with Post 182 for six innings, only to watch it slip away.

Starter and former Lee County High School player Brandon McNutt gave Post 30 six solid innings and allowed three runs, similar to teammate Adam Coffey’s performance against Post 182 in the first meeting.

However, Post 182 — holding onto a 3-1 lead — took control in the seventh when Post 30 committed a costly error with two outs that would have ended the inning. Instead, two more errors later, Leesburg scored four times and held a 7-1 lead.

As has been the case most of the season, Post 30 (5-5 in region) had no answer.

“I think it got in everybody’s heads that once we are down, we can’t come back,” said Post 30 right fielder and Early County High School alum Adam Crozier, who had two hits and reached base in each of his four plate appearances. “I think it’s going to take a big win soon to get us back going.”

The good news for Crozier and Post 30 is that they will meet Post 182 once again at Paul Eames on Monday at 6 p.m. for the third game of four scheduled meetings.

“We’ll just have to line ’em up all over again next week and hope for a better ballgame,” said Post 30 coach Don Norman with a smile, despite the loss. “That’s baseball. We’ll be excited to see them on Monday.”

And one thing Post 182 has learned, regardless of how much work its new pitcher Stubbs puts in the field, he will be there on game day.

“I just wanted to play baseball,” Stubbs said. “What else was I going to do?”

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