Bleckley Defeats Toombs

The Bulldogs baseball team of Toombs County High School faced off with the Royals of Bleckley County last week in Cochran in the first round of the GHSA State AA Playoffs. It was a tough best-of-three series for Toombs as they were swept by Bleckley in two games to end their season. Toombs finished the year with a 16-13 record.

Game 1

Bleckley got on the board in the bottom of the first inning with two runs to take the early lead, and then added four more in the second as they began to pull away. With two more in the third, it was already 8-0 with the Royals out in front. In the bottom of the fourth Bleckley picked up a few more hits to push the lead to 9-0, and then they added one more to make it 10-0 heading to the fifth inning. Toombs finally got on the board in the fifth. They had picked up two runs, and got the third when Brantley Upshaw scored on a hit by Wil Watts for the Bulldogs to make it 10-3. The Royals added a run in the bottom half of the frame, and then held on to take the win in Game 1 11-3 over the Bulldogs. Upshaw led TCHS with 2 RBI's.

Game 2

In the second game of the series Gray Stephens brought in Chandler Lynn with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first inning to put Toombs on top 1-0. But that was the only run that the Bulldogs would score in the game.

Bleckley answered in the top of the second inning to tie the game at 1-1. In the fourth inning they loaded the bases and got several hits to go on top and eventually hold a 5-1 lead going to the bottom of the fourth inning.

Toombs was held in the fourth, and in the top of the fifth inning the Royals scored five more aided by a grand slam home run to extend their lead to 10-1. The Royals kept the Bulldogs off the board over the remainder of the game to get the 10-1 win.

The Bulldogs will be losing five big seniors off of this year's team. Chandler Lynn, Chase Musselman, Gray Stephens, Alex Gordy, and Foster Jones will all be missed next season.