Indians win three; begin region games at home April 24

In the top of the third inning, the Indians’ bats came to life. With one out, JoJo Harrison singled and took second and third on two consecutive wild pitches from Telfair’s Conley. O.J. Hogan singled Harrison home and, after a walk and stolen base by Trent Mitchell, came home on Brady Blalock’s second homer of the year.

With the score now 4-1, a single by Brandon Beck and a bunt single by Blake Moore put two on with two outs for Aron Chick. Chick responded with the first hit of his high school career, a two run double to right center field. Dodge led 6-1 until Telfair scored three runs in the bottom of the third to close the gap to 6-4. In the fourth inning, Christian Miller launched his third homerun of the season onto the tennis courts behind left field to push the Indians’ lead to 7-4.

In the top of the fifth the Indians continued to score runs on Conley when Blake Moore connected for a two RBI double that made the score 9-4. A walk to the Indians pitcher chased Conley from the game and Aaron Mizell came on in relief. Mizell got the final two outs in the inning but only after an error by the catcher allowed Moore to score from third and run the score to 10-4.

In the bottom of the fifth, Herschel Anderson came in to relieve Chick and gave up two quick solo homeruns by Telfair’s Alex Conley and Aaron Mizell which closed the score to 10-6. Anderson gave up a single to Nigel Merritt, but then got three outs on his next three pitches, aided by a nifty 6-4-3 double play and a groundout to second base.

In the sixth inning the Indians scored three unearned runs off of three walks with a run-scoring groundout by pinch hitter Jordan Smith and a two-RBI double by Blake Moore. The Indians were still not done, however, as in the top of the seventh Christian Miller hit a long homerun that landed in the road and bounced into the yard across the street from the stadium for his fourth homer of the year.

An unearned run finished the scoring for the Indians and Clint Taylor recorded four strikeouts in the final two innings to end the game. Aron Chick went four innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits and five strikeouts to earn his first win as a Dodge County Indian. Christian Miller was three for four with two homers, two RBI’s, and three runs scored and Blake Moore also went three for four with two doubles, four RBI’s, and two runs scored. Dodge won 15-7.

Finally, the Indians made their way to Cochran on Friday for a big region showdown with their rivals, the Bleckley County Royals. This was Dodge’s first trip to Bleckley’s new baseball stadium and their first time seeing pitcher Kace Kilpatrick.

For the first two innings, Dodge was held scoreless and only managed a walk and a stolen base. Dodge broke the scoreless game open in the top of the third after a walk to Blake Moore and by the end of the inning, four runners had crossed the plate. In the bottom of the third, Brandon Beck gave up two singles and after a balk call moved those base runners to second and third, the Royals halved the score at 4-2. Bleckley pulled to within one run in the fourth inning after a leadoff walk came in to make the score 4-3.

The top of the fifth inning was where the Indians began to run away with the game as six runs scored off of Kilpatrick.

Two runs scored quickly as Herschel Anderson singled and JoJo Harrison was walked and later scored on an RBI single by Christian Miller and an error on the Royals shortstop, respectively.

Then, after Clint Taylor was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second, Brady Blalock launched his third homer of the season over the left centerfield fence for three RBI’s and to make the score 9-3. Blake Moore walked and stole two bases before being singled home by the Indians’ pitcher, Brandon Beck.

The Royals tried to mount a comeback and scored one earned and one unearned run off of Beck in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 10-5, but that was all the scoring Dodge’s pitchers would allow on the night. The Indians scored four more times on the night and finished the top of the seventh leading 14-5.

Brandon Beck notched his third win of the year by pitching six innings and allowing only seven hits and recording four strikeouts. Clint Taylor pitched a hitless bottom of the seventh inning to preserve the win. Herschel Anderson went two for four with three runs scored and Christian Miller was two for three with a walk, two runs scored, and a stolen base. Blake Moore was one for two with two walks and four stolen bases in the game.

The region wins against Dublin and Bleckley left the Indians in second place in the region with a chance to take the region trophy from Toombs County if they could defeat the Bulldogs in Eastman on Tuesday, April 26, and win by two runs or more.

The Indians will host either the third or fourth seeded team in Region 3A-AA on Saturday, April 24 in a double-header in Eastman. The games will help determine the final standing for all of Region 3 for the first round of the state playoffs.