ELLAVILLE – The Schley County Wildcat baseball team stayed undefeated at 8-0 when they thrashed the Eagles of Crawford County (CC) 16-1 on Tuesday, March 5, at Schley County High School (SC).

With the loss, Crawford County falls to 5-3 on the year and 2-1 in Region 4-1A play.

SC left fielder Dakota Albritton went 3 for 4 at the plate with three singles and two RBIs. He also scored two runs. Shortstop Dylan Taylor went 2 for 3 with an RBI triple and scored a run. Right fielder Ashton Goodin went 2 for 4, scored two runs and drove in an RBI. SC pitchers Trent Bivins and Lorne Barineau also had multiple hits. Bivins went 2 for 2, scored a run and drove in three RBIs. Barineau also went 2 for 2 and drove in an RBI.

“We had a good night. We swung the bats pretty well. Our pitchers threw strikes and we were able to get a pretty quick lead,” SC head coach Chuck Cheek said. “I liked the fact that our offense got going early. We’ve got some guys that are starting to swing the bat pretty well.” Cheek went on to say that Ashton Goodin has been swinging the bat well. Goodin, along with Taylor and Trypp Lumpkin, are just coming off basketball season. “They’re behind. They haven’t had all of the cuts everybody else has had so they’re starting to get their timing down,” Cheek said. “Once they get rolling, it picks everybody else up a little bit.” Cheek was also pleased with the performances of starting pitcher Trent Bivins and relief pitcher Lorne Barineau. Bivins had two innings of work. During that time, he gave up one run on one hit, walked one and struck out four batters. Barineau came in to pitch the last two innings. He gave up no runs, hits or walks and struck out five CC hitters.

“Lorne came in and did a really good job of throwing strikes,” Cheek said. “Trent struggled a little bit early, but it’s not like it was a bad outing. He just didn’t have the normal sharpness and control that he has.” It was a cold night in Ellaville with temperatures in the 40s. “It’s pretty frigid out here. It’s hard to grip the ball a little bit. I don’t know that his arm ever got good and warm,” Cheek said. “He battled through it. We were able to put a bunch of runs on the board and we had some guys do some good things tonight.”

Cheek went on to praise the offensive output of Albritton at the plate, and is pleased overall with the team’s performance in the season thus far. “We’re starting to play pretty well. We’ve got to clean up a lot of little things that we are doing if we’re going to compete for some of the things that we think we should be competing for,” Cheek said.

Cheek went on to talk about the upcoming schedule for the Wildcats, which will be significantly tougher than it has been. The Wildcats take on Region 4-1A opponents Marion County on Friday, March 8, in Buena Vista. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. That is followed by a doubleheader at Westfield on Saturday, March 9. First pitch for Game 1 will be at 1 p.m. “Next week is brutal. We’ve got some really tough teams next week,” Cheek said. “We’ve got Baconton Charter on Monday, Hawkinsville on Tuesday. Friday, March 15, we have Brookstone. That’s our big game every year. Then we’re going up to Gwinnett County to play Johns Creek at Cool Ray Field. It’s going to be a test for our batters against some really good pitching, and it’s going to be a test for our pitchers against some really good hitters. We will see where we are then.”

Cool Ray Field is the home of the Atlanta Braves AAA minor league affiliate, the Gwinnett Stripers.

As far as Tuesday night’s game against CC, the Wildcats scored 16 runs on 12 hits and committed one error. The Eagles scored one run on one hit and committed five errors. The Eagles scored the first run of the game in the top of the first inning, but the Wildcats responded with eight runs in their half of the first. Albritton, Goodin and Bivins each singled and scored. Bivins was able to drive in two RBIs. The Wildcats were able to take advantage of walks, errors and wild pitches.

In the bottom of the second inning, Goodin led off with a triple, followed by an RBI single by Bivins. This led to the Wildcats scoring four more runs in the inning to make the score 13-1 in favor of SC. The Wildcats got three more runs in the bottom of the fourth when Albritton led off with a single and Dylan Taylor drove him in on an RBI triple. Two more runs would score to end the game on run differential rules.

The Wildcats will now focus on their region opponents Marion County on Friday, March 8. First pitch from Buena Vista is scheduled for 6 p.m.