The luck of the Irish was hit-and-miss for the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk baseball team Saturday at home in a conference doubleheader with Wallace State-Dothan. But in the end, Warhawk head coach Darrell Blevins said he began to see his Warhawks’ ‘hearts of gold.’
In a game of ups and downs, the JDCC Warhawk split a pair of extra inning games to see their record go to 14-17 overall and to 4-8 in conference play.
In game one, the Warhawks rallied from a 9-4 deficit to force extra innings only to fall in 10 innings to the Governors by a score of 13-11.
In game two, JDCC trailed Wallace Dothan 8-5 in the bottom of the sixth before tying the game at 8 to force extra innings. This time, JDCC would come out on top in the bottom of the ninth to win 9-8 to get the split.
“We just showed a lot of heart and a lot of character today,” JDCC head coach Darrell Blevins said after the split Saturday. “We could have quit in both games after giving up the lead. They just didn’t. They just continued to grind it out and some people just came through. Nathan Edwards came through in the second inning. He also threw two innings for us on the mound. Generally we try to use him in a specific hitter or a one-inning situation. He goes out there today and gives us two good innings.”
Blevins said his team just kept after it Saturday and his guys are a lot of fun when they are doing things right.
“They are a lot of fun to watch when they do it right,” Blevins said. “They have hearts of gold and they have not quit yet. They are just trying to hang in there and to be able to split like that keeps us in the mix. We start round two this week as we are coming to the point where we have two-out-of-three game series. We are starting to get some production from a lot of our pitchers that have not thrown very much so far. That is liable to be very big when we get in those 25 inning weekends. We are just going to keep after it. I will give them two days off (Sunday and Monday) and we will come back Tuesday and start getting ready for Faulkner State and the triple header.”
JDCC will be back in action Thursday, March 22 in a nine-inning home conference game against Faulkner State. The two teams will meet again in Brewton Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at noon.

Game one: WSD 13, JDCC 11, 10 innings
It was an up-and-down game one for the Warhawks as they lost in 10 innings to Dothan 13-11.
JDCC led 3-0 after two innings before falling to a seven-run third inning for the Governors to fall behind 7-3.
JDCC would cut the lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the inning for Dothan added two more in the inning to go on top 9-4. JDCC would later cut the lead to 9-5 after five innings and rallied with four in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at 9-9 and force extra innings.
Neither team would score in the eighth and ninth innings while Dothan plated four runs in the top of the 10th to claim a 13-9 lead. JDCC would get two runs in the bottom of the inning but would leave runners on at first and third to take the loss.
Dothan had a three-run homerun in the top of the 10th inning to get the win.
After scoring four in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game, JDCC had the winning run get thrown at the plate while trying to score on a passed ball.
Joey Hedden got the start on the mound and was followed by Tyler Howell, John Williams, Tyler Moore and Andrew Yarborough. Moore took the loss on the mound.
At the plate, Dillan Schaniel was 2-for-4 with one RBI while Mark Humphreys was 2-for-5.
Andrew Tindell was 3-for-5 with a double and one RBI while Brandon Ray was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.
Corey Lane was 2-for-6 with a double and two RBIs and Brandon Blackwelder was 2-for-5 with one RBI. Nathan Edward was 1-for-6 and Kyle Freeman was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.

Game two: JDCC 9, WSD 8, eight innings
In game two, the luck turned towards JDCC as they earned the split with a 9-8 win.
JDCC fell behind 1-0 after one inning but got two runs each in the third and fourth innings to take a 4-1 lead.
Dothan would cut the lead to 4-3 with two runs in the fifth inning but JDCC would get one of their own to hold a 5-3 lead.
Dothan would get five runs in the top of the sixth to take an 8-5 lead but Ray would connect for a two-run homerun for JDCC in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. Neither team would score in the seventh as the game went into extra innings again.
After holding Dothan to no runs in the top of the eighth, JDCC got a single from Edwards to score Schaniel to get the win.
Edwards earned the win on the mound in relief of Corey Thompson and Schaniel. Thompson went five innings while Schaniel went one and Edwards two.
At the plate, Schaniel was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs and Humphries and Tindell were both 1-for-5 with Tindell having two RBIs.
Ray was 1-for-4 with a homerun and two RBIs while Edwards was 2-for-3 with one RBI.
Freeman was 1-for-3 and Blackwelder was 1-for-4 with one RBI. Danny Sellers was 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI for JDCC in the win.