Worth County’s Drake Jones pitches two-hit shutout for 1-0 win

SYLVESTER — Worth County sophomore pitcher Drake Jones pitched a complete game two-hitter Tuesday night and the Rams survived a big base-running snafu and edged Bacotnon Charter 1-0 at Pope Park in Sylvester.

Jones gave up only two hits, walked one, and struck out six, pitching all six innings. He threw 92 pitches and 61 of them were strikes.

“Drake pitched an excellent game,” said Worth County head coach Will Smith. “He pounded the zone all night long. He did what he set out to do. Very well done. That is an excellent Baconton team, so I am very pleased with how Drake pitched tonight.”

Baconton Charter’s Will Worsham pitched just as impressively on the other side of the field. He also pitched the entire game, giving up four hits, one walk, and striking out five. Worsham also had Baconton Charter’s only two hits of the game.

The Rams scored in the bottom of the third on an error. Drake Jones then hit into a fielders choice at shortstop that put Luke Smith out and Jones at first before Clint Bragg came in to run for Jones. Bragg went to second on a wild pitch and Cody Garwood then smacked a hard-hit ball to short that couldn’t be handled and Bragg scored on the play.

However, the biggest play of the night was one where the Rams could have added two more runs.

With one out in the bottom of the fifth and Garwood at first, Parker Weaver belted a high fly ball to deep center field that was misjudged by the centerfielder. The ball got behind the center fielder and hit the fence. As Garwood was rounding third, the center fielder threw the ball to his cutoff man, and Worth County Will Smith held up the stop signal for Garwood and Weaver. However, Weaver had already rounded second and both Worth County runners got caught in rundowns for outs to end the inning.

“That was all my fault,” said Smith. “My guys were mad and that’s ok. But it wasn’t their fault, it was mine. If it had been two outs I would not have hesitated to send the runners but I knew I had only one out and I had Chip Cooper coming up to bat. So I tried to stop them. The thing was, Parker was too fast coming around the bases and Baconton executed their plays perfectly and it caught us.”

Garwood, Smith, Weaver, and Coy Etherefge had the four Worth County hits.

The Rams will host senior night Friday night at Pope Park with Crisp County coming to town. The Blazers will be at Pelham Thursday afternoon and host Stewart County Friday.