By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
OAK GROVE – Oak Grove rarely has to rebuild in baseball, preferring to reload for another championship bid.
But after losing the heart of a talented senior-laden team from last year’s abbreviated season, veteran head coach Chris McCardle watched a young team go through some growing pains early in the 2021 campaign.
Still, with the coming of spring and the start of Region 5-6A play, the Warriors are starting to round into the form expected of a program with 11 state titles to its credit.
Oak Grove completed a sweep of a two-game series with George County Friday night at Harry Breland Field with an authoritative 7-1 victory over the Rebels, to go with Monday’s 6-1 triumph at Lucedale.
The Warriors improved to 12-4 overall (2-0 in region); George County dropped to 6-9 and 0-2.
“We are loads better than we were when we started,” said McCardle.
“We’ve got an inexperienced group; only a couple of guys played any varsity games before we got shut down last year. Over the last few games, we’ve started to settle in, guys have gotten a little more confident and playing really good defense.”
Junior left-hander Micah Daniell went the distance on the mound for Oak Grove, scattering five hits, with five strikeouts, three walks and three hit batters.
“It wasn’t his best outing, but he’s such a bulldog out there,” McCardle said. “He told me earlier, he wanted to go seven innings. I wanted to get him a chance to see what it’s like to finish a game in the seventh inning, and he did a good job there.”
The Warriors got all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first inning off George County starter Tanner Odom (2-2), a sophomore right-hander pressed into big-game service because of injury and illness to several the Rebels’ front-line pitchers.
Senior Peyton Peoples drew a walk to lead off, then senior Zach Little was hit by a pitch with one out. A walk to senior Ethan Easterling loaded the bases, and Peoples came home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Daniell.
Easterling stole second, and he and Little scored on junior Jack Sikes’ single to right field.
“Starting off the game, I’m always trying to pass the bat off to the next guy, just get on base any way I can,” said Peoples, who came into Friday’s game as Oak Grove’s leading hitter, with a .481 batting average.
“I don’t try to get too greedy, do too much in the leadoff spot. I just try to get on base and let my teammates work up there too.”
Oak Grove got right back to work in the bottom of the second, after Daniell got out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the inning with just one out on a walk and a pair of hit batters.
Daniell got a force out at home plate on a comebacker to the mound, then a ground ball to first kept the Rebels off the scoreboard.
Junior Joseph Clearman opened Warrior second with a single, and senior Blake Bullock reached for a single after Odom slipped on the wet grass fielding a bunt. A wild pitch moved the runners up and Peoples followed with a two-run double into the gap in left-centerfield.
Peoples also reached base in the third on a walk, improving his average to an even .500.
“He started me off with two curveballs,” said Peoples, who battled out of an 0-2 hole in the second inning at-bat.
“He did that in the first at-bat, got it to 3-2, then threw fastball right over the heart of the plate, a little low, so I knew he was going to come back with it 3-2 again. He threw it right there, down the middle, and I was able to do something with it.”
Daniell helped himself in the fourth inning, pulling a double down the rightfield line to score Easterling, who had singled with one out.
The Rebels got runners to second and third with one out in the fourth, but Daniell got a strikeout and a groundout to third base to get of trouble, and he got out of another bases-loaded jam in the fifth with a pair of strikeouts and another groundout.
“I threw a lot of fastballs for strikes, and my curveball was really working well,” said Daniell. “I’d say my out pitch was the change-up, for the rollover groundout. My defense played well tonight.”
That’s a far cry from earlier in the season, when the Warriors struggled in the field.
“We were four or five errors a game, sometimes six,” said McCardle. “I thought we played really good defense tonight, except for the seventh inning, when we kind of relaxed with the big lead. But in the field, and offensively, we’re way better than we were.”
George County got on the board in the top of the seventh, but Daniell was able to finish it up for the Warriors’ first complete game of the season.
“I think we’re getting it going,” said Peoples. “I think we’re going to do big things, because we’ve got a lot of hard workers on this team. That goes a long way to whether you get a ring or not.”
Oak Grove travels to play Lamar County rival Purvis at 2 p.m. Saturday, then battles Meridian next week in region play, at home Tuesday, then at Meridian on Thursday.
PREP BASEBALL SUMMARY
Friday at Oak Grove
Oak Grove 7, George County 1
GC 000 000 1 – 1 5 0
OG 330 100 x – 7 8 1
GEORGE COUNTY (6-9, 0-2 in 5-6A): Gage Reeves 2B; Alan Wilson 1B; Lacho Pascual 1B; Brody Howell 1B; Levi Foshee 2B. LP – Tanner Odom (2-2). Also pitching – Levi Foshee; Hunter Rhymes.
OAK GROVE (12-4, 2-0 in 5-6A): Peyton Peoples 2B; Foster Mitchell 1B; Ethan Easterling 1B; Micah Daniell 2B; Jack Sikes 1B; Joseph Clearman 1B; Blake Bullock 2 1B. WP – Micah Daniell (4-0).
(Photos courtesy of Jesse Johnson)
