Miller County Pirates' Baseball highlights
By: Glenda Bailey

The 2008 Miller County Pirates hosted three games last week at Everett Field. The first game was on Wednesday, March 12, against Westover. It was a hard game played for the Pirates as they fell 12-2. Miller County's Nick Rawlings scored off a Westover error, and Russell Hart hit a lone over-the-fence home run. The Pirates had fivehits whereas Westover had 10 hits. Westover's Andrew Anderson hit an over-the-fence home run, too.

The second game was on Thursday, March 13, against the Early County Bobcats. That game was every bit of a heart breaker for the Pirates as well as the coaches. Our Pirates defeated the Bobcats 8-6 earlier this season in Blakely. Errors were very costly in this game for the Pirates. Early County had 13 hits whereas the Pirates had six hits. The final score was Early County Bobcats, 17, to Miller County Pirates, 1.

The third game of the week was totally different as the Pirates defeated the Calhoun County Cougars. The winning pitcher was Miller County's Tyler Cox. In the top of the first, Cox faced four Cougars at bat. Calhoun's Spann popped up to Cox. Shedick grounded to shortstop Jordan Kirkland, who then shot-gunned to first baseman Juwan Jones for the second out. With the third Cougar batter on first, Cougar Martin popped up to Cox for the third out.

The first batter for the Pirates was Nick Rawlings. Rawlings watched as four balls flewby him, with Rawlings on first, next up to bat was Russell Hart. Hart singled out and Rawlings scored giving the Pirates a one point lead.

In the second inning, the Pirates' defense turned an awesome double play, and third baseman Dalton Snipes caught a pop fly.Then the Cougars turned around and made a double play against the Pirates, and Calhoun's second baseman threw out a Pirate at first.

In the top of the third inning, Cox faced only three Cougars up at bat, striking out two and the third popping out to Caleb Cunningham. In the bottom half, Russell Hart scored off of Alan Love's single, and in the fourth inning, Cunningham scored off of Rawlings' single.

In the fifth inning, Calhoun began to answer back scoring two runs. First run was by R. Ford off a Pirate error, and the second run was an overthe fence home run made by J. Spann. The score stood 4-2.

In the top of the sixth, the Pirates held the Cougars, and in the bottom half Miller County's Caleb Cunningham got his game on. Cunningham's keen eye took a walk; the next two Pirate players popped and grounded out. With Cunningham on first, Nick Rawlings stepped to the plate and hit a hard line drive scoring Cunningham. Next up Hart's double scored Rawlings, Cox was next up and got on by a Cougar error. With two Pirates on base, Alan Love stepped up and hit a line drive between first and second base scoring Tyler Cox. Jordan Kirkland and Juwan Jones each took a walk. Caleb Cunningham scored Love before the inning came to an end.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Pirates turned another awesome double play. Calhoun County had one runner on first and had a new batter up to bat. The Cougar batter grounded to the shortstop--Jordan Kirkland. Kirkland then flipped the ball to second baseman, Shelton Pickle, who then shot-gunned it to first baseman Juwan Jones for the double play. It was a bodacious play. The third out came as a pop up to centerfielder Nick Rawlings. The final score was Miller County, 10, to Calhoun County, 2.

By the time this goes to press, the Pirates will have hosted another game against Dougherty County on Monday 17, Saint Patrick's Day. Then on Tuesday, March 18, Baconton will be here to face the Pirates at Everett Field. Game times are at 5:00 p.m.. On Thursday, March 20, our boys take to the road to Monroe High in Albany and then on Friday, March 21, our boys travel over to Donalsonville to the Seminole County Indians. So that is the schedule for this coming week of Pirate baseball. This is a great group of young men, so let's give them all of our support. Go, Miller County!