Worth County baseball secures No. 2- seed in split with Cook High in Sylvester

SYLVESTER – The Worth County Rams (20-7, 14-4) are heading into the state playoffs as the number two seed from Region 1-AA after splitting a doubleheader with Cook High Friday night at Pope Park in Sylvester. The Rams will host Putnam County (13-12,12-2) Thursday for the first round of the state playoffs in Sylvester. 

First pitch for game one Thursday is 4 p.m. at Pope Park with game two to follow.

Jeff Davis took the top spot from Region 1-AA and Worth County secured the number two seed by winning the first game Friday, 5-2 over the visiting Hornets. The Hornets blasted the Rams 14-2 in game two. Cook will take the third seed and Dodge County goes into the playoffs as the fourth seed.

The Rams scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth during game one Friday and held off the charging Hornets trying to rally. Luke Rogers started the sixth inning with a double to left and Lalan Ellis. First baseman Christian McDonald followed with a double to score Rogers and put Ellis on third. One out later, Logan Fox hit a line drive to left which scored Ellis and Kaden Ware, who had entered the game as a pinch runner. Avery Kilcrease followed with a single to center, his fourth hit of the game. With two outs, Coy Etheredge knocked in the with a double to left.

The Hornets, who needed to win this game to secure the number two spot, didn’t go down easily in the seventh.  Worth County head coach Will Smith brought in the Rams’ ace – Owen Hancock to pitch the seventh. Hancock hasn’t seen much action this season because of a back injury and Cook’s Dixon belted a home run over the centerfield fence to greet the hard-throwing Hancock.  The Hornets followed with a single and a walk before Hancock struck-out the next two batters. The Hornets got their final run on a bloop single before Hancock struck out the third batter to record the win and put the Rams into the second seed.

Kilcrease took the win on the mound in game one. He pitched six innings. He gave three hits with no runs. He walked three and struck out seven. Kilcrease was also 4-4 at the plate. Etheredge and McDonald had two hits each in game one.

Lalan Ellis started on the mound for the Rams in game two, pitched three innings and left the game after three innings with a 1-0 lead.  However, the Hornets unloaded in the fourth inning with eight straight hits, including four doubles, before the Rams were able to secure the first out in the inning. Several of the hits were hard hit doubles to deep center but the Rams struggled with two bunts that put runners on base. Worth County also didn’t have defenders in place on one play and then failed to tag a runner at home on another. In all, the Hornets pushed six runs across the plate in the fourth, added a seventh in the fifth and then scored seven more in the sixth.

Owen Fletcher took the loss on the mound for the Rams. Fletcher led the team with three hits in game two.

By Joe Whitfield
Sports /EditorJoeWhitfield[email protected]
By Joe Whitfield
Sports EditorJoeWhitfield[email protected]