Gilmer High continued its nonregion baseball slate and picked up two wins.
GHS was at home all week, and Lumpkin was in town Tuesday. Bobcat pitchers limited the Indians to five hits, but their two-run fifth evened the score. The Cats pushed a run across the plate in the sixth and held off LCHS in the seventh for a 5-4 win.
Gilmer took on Union County two days later and got some payback against the Panthers, who defeated GHS a week prior. The Cats’ bats remained hot, and they erased Union’s two-run lead in the fifth. Gilmer tacked on two more runs in the sixth and won, 8-5.
The Cats started the week Monday versus Pickens. The Dragons scored in every inning, which included six in the sixth for a 15-3 win.
“Overall, the week ended up going very well for us,” said head coach Jeff Thurman. “Against Lumpkin and Union, we used some of our veteran pitchers, our older pitchers got a little more work and that made a big difference.
“Also offensively, we definitely got hot at the end of this week, with double-digit hits against Lumpkin and Union. We also had some clutch hitting. That’s something we sometimes have struggled with in the past, just getting that two-out hit or that clutch hit with runners in scoring position.”
Lumpkin scored a run in the first and another in the third. GHS responded with three runs in its half. Bobcats Peyton Ocobock, Blake Grizzle and Cooper Cochran strung together three straight singles with one out.
Peyton Chancey then grounded out to first, and Ocobock scored. Grizzle caught the defense sleeping and scored as well. Jase McCollum’s single to center gave Gilmer a 3-2 edge.
Jayden Grizzle got the fourth going with a triple and came home on a wild pitch.
A LCHS walk and two singles put the Indians’ third run on the board, and they tied the score at 4-4 on a wild pitch.
Jayden Grizzle was there once again in the sixth with a leadoff line drive to center. Blake Grizzle doubled to plate the go-ahead run, and McCollum retired LCHS in order in the seventh.
McCollum pitched the final 2 2/3 innings and struck out four. Landen McClure got the start and lasted 4 1/3 innings, walked four, struck out one and allowed four earned runs.
Blake Grizzle, Cochran, Chancey, McCollum and Jayden Grizzle all had two hits apiece.
Three hits and a sacrifice fly put two runs on the board for Union in the first. GHS answered when Blake Grizzle was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on Cochran’s sacrifice bunt. Chancey’s base hit to right scored a run, and Chancey came home on Mel Mosley’s two-out infield hit.
UCHS took a 4-2 lead after its fourth at-bat, and Gilmer got a run back in its half. Chancey’s fly out to center with one out scored Blake Grizzle, who reached on a single.
Union added its final run in the sixth to lead, 5-3. Mel Mosley reached base on a fielder’s choice, and with two outs, McClure singled and Rob Mosley walked to load the bases. They all trotted home on Blake Grizzle’s double to left.
Ahead 6-5, Chancey was hit by a pitch and McCollum walked to start the sixth. Jayden Grizzle hit a grounder to short, and none of the Panthers’ ensuing throws were in time as two runs scored and Grizzle advanced to second.
Aside from the aforementioned players, Mel Mosley recorded two hits and Rob Mosley had one.
Two GHS errors led to two unearned runs on the day. McCollum got the win once again and was on the mound for 3 2/3 innings. He struck out seven, walked two and gave up four hits.
Cochran got the start and went 2 2/3 innings and allowed five hits for an earned run and struck out three. Slade Holt surrendered two earned runs, walked two and struck out one in 2/3 of an inning.
Against Pickens, GHS used five pitchers and the Dragons collected 11 hits. PHS scored at least two runs in four innings, and its six runs in the sixth led to the end of the game when Gilmer was unable to cut the deficit to fewer than 10 runs.
“We did some good things offensively, especially early, but it just ended up not being enough,” said Thurman. “We were going pretty deep into our pitching staff, particularly using a few younger kids, which was great experience for them.”
GHS scored all of its runs in its first at-bat. Blake Grizzle led off the inning with a double. Cochran then reached when his bunt was followed by a PHS throwing error, and Grizzle scored. Chancey was up next, and his two-run homer to right gave the Cats a brief 3-2 lead.
GHS is 3-3 overall and wraps up nonregion play this week versus Fannin County. Gilmer hosts the Rebels Thursday at 6:30 p.m.