Batter waits to swing at ball. The Miller County Pirates’ baseball team is under a new coaching staff with Head Coach Scott Warren, assistants Woodie Kirkland and Eddie Whitaker. It has been a roller coaster ride for this young team. A practice game was played over in Pelham; our boys played a hard game and won 18-6. Ty Sheffield was on the mound for the Pirates and pitched a good game. Then on February 24, our boys hosted the Early County Bobcats. The game went five innings in favor of the Bobcats with the final score of 13-0. On February 26, our boys traveled to Albany to face Dougherty County and came away a winner with the final score of 14-7. Senior Bret Snow went 4 for 4 with three hits and one walk; Kameron Whitaker was 1 for 5 with two walks and sacrifice; Brian Lovering 2 for 5 with two hits, one run, three RBIs and one walk; Juwan Jones went 2 for 5 with two hits, two runs and one RBI; Ty Sheffield went 1 for 3 with one hit, two runs and RBI; Adrian Hayes went 1 for 1 with two walks, Shaq Edwards went 1 for 1 with one hit and two RBIs.

Miller’s pitcher winds and throws a strike. On March 5, our Pirates hosted and defeated the Pelham Hornets in a close game with the final score of 4-2. Junior Brian Lovering was on the mound for the Pirates and went the distance with four strikeouts. Team members scoring for the Pirates were Makel Price, Caleb Cunningham, Ty Sheffield and Bret Snow. This was a team win with all Pirates giving their all to support each other.

On March 9, the Miller County Pirates traveled over to Donalsonville to face the Seminole County Indians. It is always devastating to lose to the Indians no matter whether it is on their turf or ours. The game went six and half innings with the final score of 11-6 in the Indians’ favor. Brian Lovering went the distance on the mound for the Pirates with eight strikeouts. Kameron Whitaker went 1 for 3 with two runs and one RBI; Makel Price went 2 for 3 with two runs and one RBI; Caleb Cunningham scored a run and took a couple hits from some wild pitches; Adrian Hayes scored off of an Indian’s error. Jake Vinson was on the mound for the Indians with 15 strikeouts.

Then on March 12, the Miller County Pirates hosted the Calhoun County Cougars in a very shocking game. Ty Sheffield was on the mound for Miller while a Cougar by the name of Henderson was pitching for the Cougars. In the top of the first Sheffield was blowing pitches by those Cougars left and right. In the bottom of the first, Bret Snow scored from Kameron Whitaker’s power hit before the inning came to an end. In the second inning, neither team put runs up. Sheffield shut down the next three batters before the fans could blink an eye. Calhoun’s Henderson faced five Pirate batters with bases loaded as the second inning came to an end. In the top of the third, great defense played by our Pirates had the next three batters to go back to the dug-out bringing up the bottom of the third. Caleb Cunningham started off the bottom of the third with a walk; with Cunningham on first, next up was Brian Lovering; Lovering’s double gave Cunningham the chance to slip home for another run on the board. The Pirates were leading 2-0 as the third inning came to an end. It was in the top of the fourth, when Calhoun County’s Zackery scored a lone run making the score 2-1. But the Pirates weren’t finished. In the bottom of the third, Corey Hart got the party started with a single, Marcus Bullard struck out; Bret Snow’s triple brought Hart in to score; Cunningham eyed four balls and took a walk down to first base while Snow was rounding third going home to score. The score stood at this time 4-1. It was the top of the fifth when Calhoun County got a wild hair and final began to play baseball. The Pirate and Cougar fans could see that the Calhoun County Coaching Staff had been working diligently with the Cougars. Foster and Canton scored while Henderson held our Pirates from scoring. The score stood 4-3 in Pirate favor.

These next couple of innings were hard to swallow as Pirate fans watched for the first time in several years as our Pirate baseball team fell to Calhoun. It was in the top of the sixth inning that Calhoun had two runners on when Quan Foster stepped up to the Pirate plate and sent an airmail baseball over the fence, moving the Cougars into the lead. The final score was 7-4. But the craziest thing is that our Pirates traveled up to Edison this past week and dominated the Cougars by a large margin. So what happened here at Everett Field? Who knows? Young mistakes were costly!

On March 19, the Pirates traveled up to Randolph-Clay to face the Red-Devils. In the top of the first inning, Miller County was quick to get the jump lead on the Red-Devils with 13 runs. Snow had 3 runs and 1 RBI; Bullard had 1 run with 2 RBIs; Whitaker had 4 runs with 4 RBIs; Cunningham had 3 runs and 5 RBIs; Juwan Jones had 2 runs; Sheffield had 2 runs and 3 RBIs; Edwards had 3 runs with 2 RBIs;, Hayes had 2 runs with 3 RBIs; Hart had 1 run, Callan had 1 run and 1 RBI; Jacolby Jones had 2 runs, and Makel Price had 2 runs and 1 RBI. The final score was Miller County 26 to Randolph Clay’s 5.

Then on March 26, our Pirates hosted Baconton, and the game started out pretty good, but as the game went on, mistakes were costly. Brian Lovering started on the mound for the Pirates, and Baconton was quick to put a good lead on our boys. Douglas Nobles was on the mound for Baconton. The game was called in the fourth with the final score of 20-2. Kameron Whitaker eyed four balls as he took a walk down to first, with two outs and one on base, Brian Lovering stepped up, with three balls and one strike behind Lovering, this next pitch had his name on it. Lovering slapped it with every thing he had in those arm muscles and sent it out of the field.

Our Pirates are bodacious, and we are proud of them. Some of the officials need to be more consistent with their officiating. If you see one of our baseball players or coaches, tell them how proud you are of them, and there is one thing for certain — Our Pirates might lose a game, but our Pirates won’t quit. They will take their licking and keep on ticking! Go, Pirates!