OAKWOOD -- Desperate times call for desperate measures.
And a desperate West Hall baseball team, riding a six-game losing streak, pulled out all the stops Wednesday against Lumpkin County in an effort to revive its playoff chances.
The Spartans started freshman Jeffrey Jenkins, executed a perfect squeeze bunt, and got a nail-biting save from Will Simmons to pull out an 8-7 victory at Spartans Field.
The Spartans (8-13, 6-10 Region 7-AAA) faced a must-win scenario after suffering a gut-wrenching loss to Fannin County on Tuesday. Now, they will take on Dawson County at 8 p.m. Thursday in Dawsonville with a chance to grab the fourth spot.
“It’s been a rough stretch,” West Hall coach Dustin Rennspies said. “We made a lot of mistakes and could not finish close games during the streak. It was good to see us (close one out).”
West Hall came into Wednesday’s action one-half game behind Dawson County in the standings. The two teams will either be tied or the Spartans will trail the Tigers by one-game depending on their game against Fannin County in Blue Ridge.
The two teams split their first two meetings of the season with West Hall winning 9-6 in Dawsonville and the Tigers taking an 8-4 win in Oakwood.
“Whether we are tied or not, if they beat us we’re out because they will own the tiebreaker,” he said. “We’ll do everything possible to win tomorrow. Everyone but (Jeffrey) Jenkins will be available to throw.”
Jenkins, a freshman, got the start and went four innings allowing six runs on eight hits but he also limited the potential damage. Junior Kyle Reynolds pitched two-plus innings allowing no runs, and senior Simmons pitched the final inning and allowed just one run after getting out of a bases loaded jam with no outs.
“I wanted to pitch the final inning and close it out. Every pitcher wants that role,” Simmons said. “I was just thinking that I needed to get out of it and keep our season going. Hopefully this will get us going.”
The Spartans were reeling and nearly played themselves out of any playoff possibility with the badly-timed losing streak. Simmons said the team had been down but showed up Wednesday ready to put things behind them.
“The guys came out fired up and that was good to see,” Simmons said. “A losing streak gets everyone down and we were. But I didn’t see anyone giving up. A much better attitude (Wednesday). We’ll need it again (Thursday).”
However, just like the day before against East Hall, Lumpkin County (14-9, 11-6) jumped out to a quick lead in the first inning. Sebastian Dunn singled to center to start, moved to second on an error, and after a walk to Gunnar Wood, he went to third on a ground out by Timmy Summersett, which pushed Wood to third. Wood scored on a dropped third strike for a 2-0 lead.
But the Spartans responded in the bottom of the inning in a big way. They sent 12 batters to the plate, capped by Austin Henderson’s two-RBI single, his second hit in the inning, for a 6-2 lead. Zac Collins had a RBI hit, Tre Horton added a two-run single, and Tanner Ahmed also had a RBI single in the inning.
The big inning knocked out Indians’ starter Will Pence, who recorded just two outs while surrendering five hits and six runs. Summersett relieved him and was able to get out of the inning leaving the bases loaded.
The Indians closed the gap in the top of the third plating three runs on four hits. Cody Waters drove in two with a double to deep left and Ben Brown followed with a RBI single to center driving in Waters to trail 6-5.
Lumpkin County continued to chip away at Jenkins with Caleb Chastain doubling to right with one out, moving to third on a wild pitch, and then scoring on a sacrifice fly by Dunn to tie the game at 6.
Rennspies said Jenkins did what he was expecting despite being a freshman taking the hill in the biggest game of the season at this point.
“It was his turn,” Rennspies said. “We had confidence in him.He gave up some runs but he kept us in it. That’s all you can ask.”
Summersett gave the Indians a chance to climb back in the game going 4 1/3 innings giving up just one run. Derek Disanto pitched the sixth inning allowing a one run.
The game was tied after the fourth inning but West Hall retook the lead 7-6 in the fifth on a squeeze bunt RBI by Cole Wilson. The Spartans added a big insurance run in the sixth on a RBI double by Merritt Gazaway scoring Collins.
Lumpkin County loaded the bases in the top of the seventh with no outs on two walks and a single by Matt Satterfield. But Simmons struck out Zac Samples, allowed a run-scoring ground out by Chastain, and got Dunn to pop up to the shortstop to end the game and save their season at least for one more day.
The Indians had a chance to clinch the No. 2 seed from 7-AAA with a win but now will have to wait for the Banks County at East Hall result or until Friday when they play host to Dawson County in their season finale. A East Hall loss would give them the No. 2 seed.
East Hall could still finish second with a win over Banks County and a Lumpkin County loss to Dawson County.
