NORTH OCONEE’S Walker White belted a two-out grand slam in the bottom of the fourth inning to lead the no. 7 Titans past East Jackson 11-1 Thursday in Bogart.
The loss was the Eagles’ sixth in a row. East Jackson closes out its series with North Oconee Monday at home.
White’s grand slam was part of a five-run fourth inning for the subregion-leading Titans. All runs came with two outs.
East Jackson has been prone to allow big innings this year, though the Eagles avoided that in their two-game series with Elbert County earlier this week. But the problem returned in the fourth inning against North Oconee.
“We had stayed away from that the past few games, so it was a little disappointing to get hit by that again,” Eagle coach Matt Pruitt said.
East Jackson, which trailed 4-1 at the start of the fourth, had seemingly gotten out of the inning when North Oconee’s Blake Gaubert grounded to short with two outs. But it was ruled that Nate Strait’s throw pulled first baseman Josh Valles off the bag.
“That was huge,” Pruitt said. “I’m not sure what happened there at first base. Both umpires said he came off. I trust that’s what they saw.”
North Oconee took advantage of the situation.
A wild pitch brought home North Oconee’s fifth score. Two batters later White blasted his shot over the leftfield wall, and the Titans led by eight runs.
“That always happens against a good team … They always punish you,” Pruitt said.
North Oconee added two more runs in the fifth, bringing the 10-run mercy rule into effect with a two-strike, two-out RBI single from pinch hitter Kyle Vaughn.
East Jackson’s Ethan Lyons took the loss, throwing three and two-third innings, allowing one earned run (the other eight were unearned), seven hits and three walks. He struck out two batters. Lyons was pulled after White’s grand slam.
North Oconee started the scoring in the first inning with an RBI single from Blake Gaubert. The Titans tacked on two more in the second with an RBI single from Carter Warden and a sac fly RBI from Garrett Greene.
North Oconee starting pitcher Ryan Healan helped his own cause in the bottom of the fourth inning by grounding into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to bring home another run and increase the lead to 4-0.
East Jackson got its lone score off of an RBI single from Strait to right field in the top of the fourth.
The Eagles will try to pull off a big upset Monday when North Oconee travels to East Jackson for a 5:55 p.m. game. This will mark the Eagles’ fourth-straight game against a top 10 team, further illustrating how tough the Region 8-AA South schedule is.
“We knew going in that there’s really not a break though certain stretches in this region,” Pruitt said.
