Taking charge

Published 9:15 pm Friday, March 11, 2016

THOMASVILLE — The Thomasville Bulldogs played 12 innings of baseball Friday night.

Some were gritty small-ball ripe with bunts. Others were K-filled domination. And still others were error-filled lapses.

What matters: The Bulldogs took two more region wins in a doubleheader series against Early County and righted a ship that sunk late in game 1.

Thomasville won the second game, 10-0, in five innings after winning the first, 8-5, at Bryant-Garner Stadium despite holding the eight-run advantage with six outs to play.

Afterward, Bulldog head coach Erik McDougald said a leader needed to step forward or else “the mediocrity is going to continue.”

“We’ll see what happens in game 2,” he followed.

What happened in game 2 was an almost complete turnaround. Bayley Wright took care of the shutout part with the help of his error-less defense.

The senior ace, whom Early County coach Chris Lamb said the team had been expecting and preparing for all week, threw five innings of one-hit ball with five strikeouts.

The third-inning leadoff runner didn’t stay on base, as Wright went to pick him at second and threw too high. Morgan Myers was there and threw the runner out at third.

In the batter’s box, the Bulldogs grabbed nine hits and again worked bunts for runs.

“That was a team, that was a family out there,” McDougald said after game 2. “That’s what we had been waiting for all season and it happened. The players took charge.”

Game 1: Thomasville (took the early lead off back-to-back errors and blew it out to 8-0 with a bevy more in the fifth inning.

Hayden Donalson followed his first-inning single win a double to lead off the third.

A throwing error on a bunt placed Chapman O’Quinn on base and scored Donalson.

A second throwing error on the same play put Matthew Green on. The ball rolled into right field, where no one was backing up, and both runners crossed home. It made it 3-0.

Things started to fall apart further for the Bobcats in the fifth.

“There’s a difference between losing and getting beat. We lost that game,” said Lamb, who was thrown out in game 2 after arguing with the umpire. “We gave them six of the eight runs they had. We out-hit them 12 to 6. It was just too many errors and too many walks, which is what we normally do when we don’t play how we’re supposed to.”

Parker Zolt batted in Chapman O’Quinn, who was hit in the box to reach base. Eli Croley had two RBIs in the inning and five Bulldogs crossed home as starter Miles Norman struggled to find the strike zone.

Matthew Green, Rice (HBP), Zolt and Bayley Wright (walk) all scored runs.

Despite an eight-run lead with six outs to get, the Bulldogs took their turn at falling apart.

“We played six innings really well and gave up five in one inning from lack of concentration,” McDougald said.

Errors and walks filled the sixth in what McDougald called a domino effect, as well as three consecutive hits off the third reliever, Morgan Myers.

Game 2: Green had two RBIs, including a first-inning single that plated Donalson for the first run of the game.

Donalson paid it forward, hitting a stand-up triple to score Myers.

Donalson, who scored in all three at-bats, and O’Quinn, who hit 2-for-2 and scored twice, also crossed home plate to make it a 4-0 Bulldog lead.

Zolt’s triple led the third — his night would be far from over — and scored on the suicide squeeze by catcher Austin Clark.

Myers’ single brought in Clark for the two-run inning and 6-0 lead.

Wright helped himself, following Zolt’s sacrifice bunt with one to score Jared Smith and take a 7-0 lead.

Donalson singled in the fifth, followed by O’Quinn’s double and another Green RBI.

Smith singled for an RBI and Zolt’s double crushed high to the right-center fence brought in the final run of the game.