By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
A split was not the best thing the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawks baseball team could have accomplished in Friday's Alabama Community College doubleheader opener against visiting Wallace-Dothan.
Then again, considering the Warhawks scored just two runs and had only eight hits on the day, a split was certainly not the worst thing that could have happened either.
JDCC rode the the splendid pitching of Rieko Moyer to a 1-0 victory in the opener before Wallace-Dothan bounced back for an 8-1 win in the nightcap.
"We're not satsified with a split. The second game was there for taking most of the game, but we couldn't get our offense going," JDCC coach Jim Morrill said.
Moyer's success was due to his ability to keep the ball around the plate, as he walked only two and struck out three.
"He pitched a whale of a game," Morrill said.
The Warhawks scored the game's lone run in the bottom of the third inning. Charles Conklin singled and then scored on error in rightfield after a single by Carson Richards.
It did not take long for Wallace-Dothan to top its first game output in the nightcap.
The visitors used a single, a hit batter, a sacrifice and an RBI groundout to score a run in the top of the first inning.
Wallace-Dothan used a pair of doubles with a walk squeezed in between to plate two more runs in the second inning.
That lead grew to 4-0 in the fifth inning after a single, a stolen base and another single.
The Warhawks (13-12 overall) had just one hit until the bottom of the fifth inning when singles by Chris Williams, Logan Hundley and Richards cut the gap to 4-1.
JDCC starting hurler Dustin Blackwell was knoked out after a three-run sixth inning made it 7-1. The visitors added an
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insurance run in the seventh inning.
JDCC put the brakes on a five-game losing streak Tuesday when it beat visiting Bishop State 8-5.
"Granted, we've been playing some pretty tough teams lately such as Jefferson and Meridian," JDCC coach Jim Morrill said. "Yet we really needed a win just to get our confidence back and for a morale boost."
The Warhawks have had trouble at times getting big offensive blows this season, but Charles Conklin and Chris Good temporarily eased that problem Tuesday.
After Brent Childress and Chris Williams singled, Conklin came up with a two-run double in the second inning that gave the Warhawks a brief 2-0 lead.
After Bishop State touched JDCC starting hurler Matt Barton for three runs in the third inning and moved in front 3-2, it took the Warhawks until the sixth inning to answer.
Leon Brasington was struck by a pitch before Childress muscled up for a two-run homer over the leftfield wall that put JDCC in front 4-3.
The Warhawks were not done yet. Chris Good followed up Childress' homer with a three-bagger and Williams singled him in to make it 5-3. Later in the inning Cinklin reached safelyon a fielder's choice and Carson Richards walked. A wild pitch allowed Williams to score to make it 6-3. An error on a pickoff play sent Williams across the plate for the fifth run of the inning.
A single, a hit batter, a double and an outfield error allowed Bishop State to get two of those runs back in the seventh inning and cut the gap to 7-5.
JDCC picked up a key insurance run in the bottom of the seventh inning when an RBI single by Good plated Leon Brasington, who had earlier singled, to make it 8-5.
Sophomore righthander Dustin Blakely helped secure the Warhawks's victory with some crisp relief. After a leadoff walk in the ieghth inning. Blakely entered and got the first batter he faced to hit into a six-four-three double play. Blakely then struck out three of the next four hitters he faced to preseve the win.
"Dustin came in and really came up with some big pitches for us. The double play he got in the eighth inning was one of the biggest plays of the game," Morrill said.
JDCC, which had a rematch at Wallace-Dothan Saturday, travels to Faulkner to play its junior varsity team in a 4 p.m. twinbill Tuesday.
Tuesday's game
Bis. State 003 000 200 – 5 7 5
JDCC 020 005 10X – 8 11 2
Friday's game one
Wallace-Dot. 000 000 0 – 0 2 2
JDCC 001 000 X – 1 4 2
Game two
Wallace-Dot. 120 013 1 – 8 14 0
JDCC 000 010 0 – 1 4 1