Indians Take Region Series From Toombs: Toombs Wins Region Title

By Mike Branch Sports Editor sports1advance@gmail.com Contributions from TCHS & VHS

The Toombs County High School Bulldogs and Vidalia High School Indians baseball teams met last week in the final week of the regular season for a three-game series. Toombs needed to win just one game of the series to clinch the Region 3A Division 1 Championship, and they did just enough to get that done as they won the second game of the series by just one run. The Indians, on the other hand, won two of the three games to move up into third place in the final standings of Region.

Game 1

The Toombs County Bulldogs fell to rival Vidalia 7-4 on Tuesday in the first game of their Region series.

Toombs struck first in the bottom of the second when Cameron Ledford launched a solo home run to left field. Vidalia answered in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly by Veer Patel, but the Bulldogs pushed the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the frame after Riley Kersey singled to drive in two runs.

Vidalia took control in the fifth inning, capitalizing on three walks to score three runs and pull ahead 4-3. VHS added three more runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a 7-3 continued from page

lead. Nick Carroll gave Toombs a late spark with a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the seventh, but the rally fell short.

Tucker Braddy took the loss for Toombs, allowing four runs on five hits over 4.1 innings while striking out three. Jackson Berry got the win for the Indians with 14 stikeouts.

Game 2

The Toombs County Bulldogs secured the Region Championship on Thursday with a hardfought 4-3 comeback win over rival Vidalia.

Vidalia struck first with two runs in the bottom of the second of an RBI single by Eion Ryals. TCHS tied the game in the top of the third inning off an error that brought in two runs, but VHS added a run in the bottom of the inning off an RBI double by Ryan Brantley. That put VHS up 3-2.

Trailing 3-2 in the top of the fifth inning, the Bulldogs rallied when a passed ball brought home two runs and gave Toombs the lead for good, 4-3. Toombs held on to win the game by that score and secure the Region Championship.

Jackson Jenkins earned the win on the mound for the Bulldogs, pitching six innings and allowing seven hits and three runs while striking out one. Nick Carroll came on in relief and shut the door in the seventh, striking out two and allowing no runs in one inning of work.

Game 3

The third game of the series was all Vidalia as they rolled to a 7-0 win over Toombs County. Patel had a big game as he led VHS at the plate with four RBI's, including a home run, and he was the winning pitcher as he struck out 12 TCHS batters. The VHS Indians got on the board in the third inning after Patel hit a three-run home run to right field for the 3-0 lead.

The Indians scored four more runs in the top of the fifth inning on the way to a 7-0 win over Toombs County. Cayden Nance, Clay Mimbs, and Henry Adams also had hits for the Indians. Adams and Ryan Brantley each drove in a run as well for the Indians.

This week both teams will start play in the GHSA State Playoffs. Toombs will host Chattooga in a best-of-three series starting on Friday with a double header at 4:00 p.m. If necessary, they will play a third game on Saturday at noon. Vidalia will travel to Swainsboro for their first round matchup with a double header on Friday starting at 4:00 p.m. and will play a game three if necessary on Saturday at noon.

Tucker Braddy took to the mound for the Bulldogs in the first game of the Region series against Vidalia.Photo by TCHS