Dodge Baseball Loses to West Laurens

Dodge Baseball Loses to West Laurens
By Joey Marchant
Dodge County traveled to Dexter to face the AAAA West Laurens Raiders on February 22nd. West Laurens defeated Dodge 7-2 thanks in part to five Dodge errors and ten Dodge runners left on base.
Landin Crummey started on the mound for Dodge. However, in an effort to conserve pitching and get some kids some work in this non-region contest, Coach Herring employed a strategy of rotating pitchers each time through the West Laurens lineup. This strategy seemed to work as a powerful West Laurens lineup only managed one extra base hit.
Dodge started the game by stranding Brendan O’Connor and Andrew Lowery, both of whom walked in the first inning.
West Laurens took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first on two singles and two Dodge errors.
Dodge would load the bases in the top of the second on a single and steal of second base by Noah Mincey followed by walks issued to Seth Cossett and O’Connor. However, O’Connor was picked off at first to end the inning.
Crummey walked the first West Laurens batter in the bottom of the second, but he was able to get the runner out with his pickoff move to first and the ensuing rundown. Crummey got the next batter to fly out. Then Andrew Lowery was brought in to face the top of the West Laurens order. Lowery retired the first batter he faced ending the inning.
Garrett Durden led off the third with an infield hit and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Brodie Woodard laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Durden to third with one out. Lowery hit a grounder to first where Bradley Wilson fielded the ball and fired it home to nail Durden at the plate. Dodge again failed to score.
West Laurens scored two more in the bottom of the third aided by another Dodge error and a two RBI double by Brody Slaughter. West Laurens led 5-0.
Parker Hardin reached in the fourth when he was hit by a pitch, but Dodge could not score.
Lowery walked the first man he faced in the bottom of the fourth, but he got the next batter to fly out. Woodard move to the mound to pitch to the top of the West Laurens order. With the aid of yet another Dodge error, West Laurens scored two runs to take a 7-0 lead.
Dodge finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth. O’Connor led off with a bunt for a hit. Durden moved him to second with a ground ball to short. Woodard singled past the third baseman to drive in O’Connor. Noah Cummings entered as a courtesy runner for Woodard. Lowery walked. DJ Bursch singled driving in Cummings. That would end the scoring at 7-2.
Woodard pitched a clean bottom of the fifth and got two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Durden moved to the mound to get the final West Laurens out.
After going in order in the sixth, Dodge got Woodard on base thanks to catcher’s interference. Kaden Burse had an infield hit. However, West Laurens held Dodge scoreless to end the game.
Leading hitters for Dodge were as follows: Brendan O’Connor was one for two with two walks and one run scored. Garrett Durden was one for three. Brodie Woodard was one for two with a sacrifice bunt and one run batted in (RBI). Kaden Burse was one for four. DJ Bursch was one for 4 with one RBI. Noah Mincey was one for three with a stolen base.
Landin Crummey (2-1) took the loss. He pitched one and two thirds innings giving up three runs (one earned) on two hits and one walk. Andrew Lowery pitched one and two thirds innings giving up three runs (one earned) on two hits and one walk. He struck out two. Brodie Woodard pitched two and one third innings giving up one unearned run on no hits and one walk. He struck out one. Garrett Durden pitched one third of an inning giving up no runs on no hits and one walk.
Dodge (3-1) had two games scheduled in Adel on March 2nd, but those games were rained out. Dodge was set to begin region play by hosting Dublin on March 5th in an effort to defend its 2018 3AA Region Championship, but results were not available at press time. Dodge is scheduled to travel to Fitzgerald on March 6th and Dublin on March 8th before hosting West Laurens on March 11th at 5:30 pm.