Dodge defeats Crisp County and Dublin

By Joey Marchant
After having a game at Vidalia rained out, Dodge traveled to Cordele on February 29th for a doubleheader with Crisp County High and Southland Academy of Americus. It was a beautiful day, but the wind was terribly strong and affected the play on the field at times.
Dodge got off to a good start against Crisp as Brendan O’Connor led off the game with a single to right field. Brodie Woodard got down a sacrifice bunt, but with the first baseman charging, the second baseman was late rotating over to cover first and could not handle the throw from the pitcher. Garrett Durden hit a sacrifice fly to score O’Connor from third. Parker Dixon hit into what should have been a fielder’s choice, but the second baseman did not have his foot on the bag when he received the throw leaving Woodard safe at second and Dixon safe at first. Andrew Lowery later served a single into right field scoring both Woodard and Dixon. Dodge led 3-0.
Lowery pitched another great game as he went 5 scoreless innings striking out 7 and giving up 1 hit and 1 walk. Lowery has now pitched 19 innings and given up only 1 earned run giving him a miniscule ERA of 0.3684.
Dodge added a run in the fourth. Garrett Durden led off with a base hit by a diving third baseman. Dixon grounded out advancing Durden to second base. Noah Mincey doubled, but Durden had to hold at third. Lowery got down a suicide squeeze bunt, and Durden was safe at the plate sliding under the tag. Dodge led 4-0.
Dodge added to the lead in the fifth. Griffin Durden and Davis Marchant each drew walks to start the inning. Landin Crummey would hit a sacrifice fly to score Durden. O’Connor would hit a sacrifice fly to score Marchant. Dodge led 6-0, and it appeared the Indians were headed for an easy victory. However, the wheels were about to come off for Dodge.
In the top of the sixth, after Garrett Durden reached on an error and Dixon singled, Lowery got down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners. As Lowery hustled down the line, he appeared to tweak something. It is unclear if the decision had already been made to pull Lowery off the mound and save him for the region schedule starting this week, but he was definitely done pitching now.
Crummey came in from right field to start the bottom of the sixth on the mound as Lowery replaced him in right. Crummey just didn’t have good command on this day. Garrett Durden came in to relieve Crummey, and he struggled as well. By the time the inning was over, Dodge had issued 7 walks and hit another batter in the inning allowing the Cougars to close the gap to 6-4 without a single hit recorded in the inning. Dodge could have easily squandered the entire lead, but with the bases loaded and one out, Durden got a sharp ground ball to Dixon who fielded it and alertly stepped on third base for the second out before firing across the diamond to complete the double play at first base.
Dodge got some much needed insurance in the top of the seventh. Bases on balls were now the order of the day as Parker Hardin, O’Connor and Woodard all walked to load the bases. Garrett Durden then walked to score Cole Cranford who had entered as a courtesy runner for Hardin. Dixon grounded out to shortstop to drive in O’Connor giving Dodge an 8-4 lead.