Baseball

Varsity Baseball – The Patriots went to the eastside of Athens to take on Cedar Shoals in a non-region game Friday night.  By the time it was over OC was going home with their third check mark in the win column by defeating CS 8-0. 

        OC jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Clay Ogle got a leadoff hit to short center field.  Nick Mathews, who was on the mound for OC, helped his own cause with a double that moved Ogle to third.  Matt Beyatt hit the ball up the middle which scored both Ogle and Mathews but Beyatt was thrown out at second.   

        Perhaps the play that defined the game came when Cedar Shoals’ fourth batter in the bottom of the first hit the ball to right field.  Beyatt caught it on the first bounce while Cedar’s runner was rounding third headed home.  Beyatt’s throw was spot on as OC’s catcher, Taylor Liedberg, made a close play at home preventing a Cedar run from scoring.        

        And that’s how it went for the Jaguars the rest of the night.  It was either three or four up and down.  Mathews pitched five innings for the win.  Mathews didn’t have any strikeouts but he didn’t have any base on balls or runs, either.  OC’s defense was competent and made the plays all night, which was in sharp contrast to Cedar who had at least six errors depending on how you count them. 

        Game stats got kind of complicated with so many of OC’s players getting numerous opportunities at bat, but here goes:  Mitchell Reed was 3-5 with two RBI’s; Beyatt was 3-5 with two RBI's; Liedberg was 2-5 with a run scored and two RBI’s; Clay Ogle was 2-5 with two runs scored; Christian Conrad scored as a courtesy runner; Nick Mathews was 3-5 with a double and two RBI’s; Jacob Hester was 1-4 but his one hit was a triple and he scored a run; Peyton Carlisle score two runs and Dillon Day got a hit and scored a run.   

        On the night Oglethorpe put 44 batters to the place resulting in 10 hits and eight runs scored.  Cedar walked six OC batters and six of Cedar’s errors resulted in five Patriot runs.         

        It was a good night for Oglethorpe, J.R. LaFleur pitched the sixth inning and J.D. Sharp finished the game for OC on the mound.  Almost the entire OC dugout got some playing time.  Cedar dropped to 2-5 for the season while Oglethorpe improved to 3-1.   

        OC’s next game is at home against a team from McCormack, SC on Tuesday, March 5^th. 

        It is worth noting that the JV Patriots defeated Cedar Shoals’ JV earlier in the day by a sore of 5-3.