Indians Comeback Falls Short at Oconee

Oconee County scored 4 runs in the 3rd inning to break open a 1-1 tie and held on for a 5-4 victory over Stephens County Tuesday night in Watkinsville.

The Indians opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Ben Stowe singled in Dylan White to take a 1-0 lead.

The Warriors tied the score at 1 in the bottom of the inning on a Logan Taylor sacrifice fly scoring Landon Tate. The Warriors then broke the game open in the 3rd inning when Landon Kuykendall singled home Cole Johnson, and after loading the bases, Isaac Smith hit what would be a single and error that led to all three men on base scoring to make the score 5-1.

The Indians cut the lead in half in the 6th inning when Stowe hit a single, took 2nd on an error, and scored on a William Roush single. Ethan Smith would later pick up a RBI on a fielder’s choice scoring Roush and the Indians trailed 5-3 heading to the final inning.

The Indians would get one run closer in the 7th when with 2 outs, Colby Fowler walked and score on Nick Randall’s double for the final tally of 5-4.

It was the 6th straight win for Oconee County with Johnson going 3 innings and picking up the win on the mound. Konnor Loudermilk suffered the loss in his first start of the season allowing 5 runs with only 3 earned on 6 hits while striking out two to fall to 2-1 on the season. Grant Babbitt pitched 3 strong scoreless innings of relief giving up just one hit.

The Indians fall to 3-4 in Region-8 play and 11-7 overall. Oconee County improves to 6-1 in the region and 10-8 overall.

The two teams will meet again in a doubleheader on Friday at Stephens County High School. The Indians 1973 state championship team will be honored with a ceremony between games. The first game on Friday is set for 5 P.M. with airtime at 4:45 P.M. on WNEG.