By: Eddy Gifford, Publisher

The Dade County Wolverine baseball team had yet another battle with Mother Nature last week when their scheduled game against Lakeview Ft. Oglethorpe was rained out on Monday.

The team did manage to get back in action Tuesday however when they traveled to Calhoun to face the ever strong Yellow Jackets.

The Yellow Jackets took the lead in the bottom of the first inning when they scored without a hit. Two base–on–balls and a Wolverine error was all they needed to take a 1-0 lead.

The second and third inning proved to be Dade’s downfall when Calhoun scored four in the second and six in the third to take an 11-0 lead.

The never-say-die Wolverines came to life in the fifth inning when they scored three runs on three hits and a pair of base-on-balls to cut the Yellow Jackets’ lead to 11-3.

The Wolverines added two more runs in the sixth to cut the lead again, now to 11-5.

Calhoun answered that score with a two run home run in the bottom of the sixth before the Wolverines added another run in the top of the seventh to make the final score 13-6.

Trent Faircloth, Casey Flynn and Nic Gaddis led the Wolverines with a pair of hits each.

The Wolverines downfall in this game was several errors – six walks and five hit batters.

The Wolverines played their second region game of the week on Thursday when the Chattooga Indians came to town after a region win of their own on Tuesday against Murray County.

Wasting little time the Wolverines exploded for five first inning runs on three hits, three walks and an error.

The Wolverines coasted to their first region win of the year scoring in every inning and taking the win 11-0 in five innings.

Luke Riddle, Hayden Johnson and Josh Core had a pair of hits each to lead the Wolverines. Faircloth, Riddle and Johnson scored a pair of runs each.

Core and Gaddis combined pitching efforts for the shutout with the Indians picking up only four hits.

Core got the win, pitching four innings and Gaddis had a pair of strikeouts in the one inning he pitched. Neither pitcher walked a batter.

On Saturday Dade hosted Early County. With temperature in the 70’s and bright sunshine the only drawback was the wind, which played havoc with anything hit in the air all day.

Early County took the early lead but the Wolverines answered and tired the game 1-1 after one inning of play.

A scoreless second inning was not a sign of things to come.

The visitors from south Georgia scored five runs in the top of the third inning aided by the wind, Wolverine errors, baseball-on-balls and hit batters.

The Wolverines again answered in the bottom of the third but managed only two runs to make it a 6-3 game.

A scoreless fourth inning opened up the flood games for the fifth inning as both teams had big rallies.

First the visitors scored four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 10-3 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth the Wolverines sent 11 batters to the plate, scoring eight runs to take their first lead of the game 11-10.

The Wolverines shut down the visitors in the top of the sixth and then added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 14-11 lead heading into the seventh inning.

The visitors from Early County were determined however and scored three runs in the top of the seventh before a ground out ended the game with the Wolverines on top 14-13.

Faircloth, Riddle and Garrett Moore led the Wolverines with three hits each.

Moore picked up the win while Riddle who started the game came in to get the final outs and picked up the save.

This week the Wolverines were scheduled to play at Pepperell on Tuesday and will be home on Thursday to host the Model Blue Devils. Game time is set for 5:55 p.m. Both of this week’s games are key region match ups.