Sports

Dodge had to shuffle its schedule as weather threatened to leave them without a single game last week. A game at West Laurens was cancelled when West Laurens cancelled classes for students on Wednesday. By rule, class cancellations prohibit a school from hosting sporting events on that day.
Dodge offered to host West Laurens, but the Raiders declined. On Friday, Dodge County was forced to cancel classes due to weather preventing the Indians from hosting Berrien County as scheduled. Berrien invited the Indians to travel down to Nashville for the second time in seven days. Eager to avenge a gut wrenching defeat at the hands of Berrien, Dodge took the Rebels up on the offer. The Indians took advantage of the hospitality by defeating Berrien 6-1.
Andrew Lowery started on the mound for Dodge and had another excellent performance. He would run his consecutive scoreless innings streak to ten and two thirds (10 2/3) innings before giving up a solo home run with two outs in the third inning. Lowery followed that by hitting a batter, giving up a base hit, and issuing a walk to load the bases with two outs. Lowery got the next batter to fly out to Brendan O’Connor in left field for the third out. Lowery would go on to pitch three more scoreless innings to earn his second win of the season finishing with six innings pitched allowing three hits and one run while striking out three, walking two and hitting one batter. Landin Crummey came into pitch the seventh inning and retired all three batters striking out one.
Offensively, Dodge eventually took advantage of several Berrien miscues while hitting the ball a little better than last week. Dodge also ran the bases well. Dodge wasted a leadoff single by O’Connor and a single and stolen base by Garret Durden who was bumped up to the two-spot in the batting order.
In the second, Dodge wasted a leadoff single by Brodie Woodard. A would be extra base hit by Davis Marchant landed inches foul down the right field line. Marchant then hit into a fielder’s choice erasing Woodard. Marchant was erased when Crummey hit into a fielder’s choice. A Dodge strikeout ended the inning.
In the Dodge third, O’Connor led off with another base hit. He was erased when Durden hit into a fielder’s choice. Parker Dixon flew out to deep center for the second out. Lowery and Noah Mincey drew walks to load the bases. Then Brodie Woodard drew a walk to plate Durden. With the bases still loaded, Coach Herring gave the go ahead for Seth Cossett to attempt a straight steal of home plate. Cossett has good speed and had entered earlier as a courtesy runner for Lowery.
The right handed pitcher was pitching from the windup with the bases loaded, which meant there was nothing he could do but deliver to the plate once he started his motion. Cossett timed it up and went on first movement sliding into the plate before the catcher could receive the pitch and tag him. For good measure, the left handed Crummey feigned a bunt attempt to try and distract the catcher. Mincey and Woodard stole second and third respectively thus completing the rarest play in all of baseball, the “straight triple steal.” Dodge led 2-0.
Dodge would add another run in the fourth. Marchant reached on an error by the third baseman when he hit a high pop up into the swirling wind. The third baseman didn’t have a chance. It looked like something you would see at old Candlestick Park. Timmy Johnson came in as a pinch runner for the designated hitter Marchant and would take his spot in the batting order thereafter. O’Connor then hit one hard to third base that was scored an error as the third base man misplayed the hop. The speedy Johnson advanced to third on the play. With two outs, Parker Dixon doubled to left scoring Johnson and giving Dodge a 3-1 lead.
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By Joey Marchant
It was a mixed bag for Dodge County Baseball as they opened the regular season. There were highs and lows. The good news is that Dodge pitching gave up only one earned run in three games and starting pitching and produced two complete games. The bad news is that Dodge struggled at the plate at times and committed a few errors in the field. All in all, the team showed a lot of promise.
Dodge opened at home with Hawkinsville. Andrew Lowery took the mound for Dodge and pitched a complete game shutout giving up only two hits while striking out five and walking two. Lowery was efficient throwing only around seventy pitches. Hawkinsville came out very aggressive at the plate as the first three batters swung at the first pitch. A base hit and an uncharacteristic Dodge error set Hawkinsville up with a chance to take an early lead with runners at first and second base with one out. However, things ended abruptly when Lowery got a ground ball to second base that Garrett Durden fielded and flipped to Brodie Woodard covering second base for the second out. Woodard threw on to Noah Mincey at first for out number three to complete the double play.
Dodge wasted no time taking a first inning lead. Woodard reached on an error by the shortstop. Parker Dixon hit a two run homerun to left field to drive in Woodard. Lowery walked and was replaced by courtesy runner Timmy Johnson. Mincey singled in the gap between first and second base, and the right fielder allowed the ball to roll under his glove all the way to the fence. The speedy Johnson came all the way around to score despite taking a tumble rounding third. Mincey ended up on third where he would remain stranded, but Dodge led 3-0.
Lowery was on cruise control from the second through the sixth innings retiring fourteen of the fifteen batters he faced.
Meanwhile Dodge padded the lead at the plate. In the bottom of the second, Catcher Parker Hardin hit a fly ball to left, which was dropped by the left fielder. Hardin hustled into second base where he was relieved by courtesy runner Kade Harpe. Davis Marchant grounded out to the right side moving Harpe to third. Brendan O’Connor doubled to left center scoring Harpe. With two outs, Durden hit a fly ball on the infield, which inexplicably fell between the first and second basemen for a cheap hit. O’Connor was running on contact, but he had to hold at third due to stumbling rounding the bag. Dixon placed a two strike pitch into left field for a single plating O’Connor and giving Dodge a 5-0 lead.
Woodard walked in the bottom of the fourth and scored from first on an RBI double by Durden. Dixon had an infield hit. Lowery hit a pop up on the infield, which the second baseman seemed to lose sight of before making an unsuccessful attempt to catch it. Durden scored on the play to give Dodge a 7-0 lead.
Dodge added a final run in the bottom of the sixth when Durden led off with a standup triple. Lowery grounded out to third scoring Durden. Mincey followed with a double, but he was stranded. Dodge led 8-0.
Lowery came out for the seventh to try to close out the game. He looked to be tiring as he gave up a base hit and a walk. He later gave up a deep fly ball to center, but Landin Crummey immediately turned and ran the ball down in the air for the crucial second out. Fittingly, Lowery fanned the last batter for his fifth strikeout to preserve the win.
Leading hitters for Dodge were as follows: Parker Dixon was 3 for 4 with a homerun, 3 RBI and 1 run scored. Garrett Durden was 3 for 4 with a triple, a double, 1 RBI and 1 run scored. Noah Mincey was 2 for 3 with a double. Brendan O’Connor was 1 for 4 with double, 1 RBI and 1 run scored. Davis Marchant was 1 for 3.
Dodge later made a trip to Swainsboro to take on the Tigers. Brodie Woodard took the mound for Dodge, and he also hurled a complete game. Woodard scattered six hits while walking one batter and hitting one batter. He struck out one batter, and he gave up only two unearned runs.
This game should not have been close as Dodge would leave eleven runners on base. Dodge wasted base hits by Garrett Durden and Parker Dixon in the first inning when Durden was thrown out trying to steal home. It was a good idea as Dixon intentionally tried to get himself in a rundown between first and second in order to allow Durden to score from third. Dodge tries this often and has stolen many runs this way. This time Swainsboro played it well.
Woodard got through the first two innings fairly easily giving up only a double and a single and holding Swainsboro scoreless. Dodge loaded the bases in the top of the third inning. Brendan O’Connor led off with a base hit and was able to advance to second on a ground out by Woodard. Durden and Dixon each walked, but Dodge could not score.
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By Chad W. Smith
The Dodge County High School Squaws basketball team traveled to Northeast Macon on Tuesday, February 4 for the second round of the Region 3AA tournament to face the  third seeded Raiderettes. The Squaws had defeated Dublin on the night before, 64-46 to advance in the tournament. 
The Squaws lost twice to Northeast in the regular season, but Dodge fought hard in the game to only lose 88-89 in overtime.
Dodge trailed 12-19 after one quarter and was led by Kaonta Goolsby with eight points in the quarter. The Squaws outscored Northeast 16-10 in the second quarter to close the score to 28-29 at halftime. Goolsby had 11 of her game high 31 points in the quarter. 
Sophomore Sanaa Searles led the Squaws in the third quarter with eight of her 15 points as Dodge trailed 45-49 headed to the fourth quarter. Kylie Hart led the Squaws with nine points in the fourth along with Goolsby’s eight points to tie the game at 69-69 at the end of regulation. Searles again led Dodge in the overtime period with six points followed by Cheyenne Hunt with four points as the Squaws dropped a hard fought game 88-89. 
Scoring for the Squaws was: Kaonta Goolsby, 31 points;  Kylie Hart, 17 points including three three-pointers; Sanaa Searles, 15 points; Cheyenne Hunt, 10 points; Ileisha Mitchell, eight points; Altierra Gooch, six points; Ambria Simmons, three points. The Squaws end their season with the loss.