Jefferson Dragons Take Region Series Win Over Oconee Warriors - 1 of 2

The Jefferson Dragons faced their 2nd region 8AAA opponent of the season they faced off against the Oconee Warriors in a 3 game series.  The series started off at Jefferson on Tuesday where they Dragons faced strong pitching and fell to the Warriors 4-0.  Jefferson bounced back Friday, when they hit the road to play at Oconee and took two wins in a Friday night double-header by a score of 4-2 in game 1 and 7-2 in game 2.  This secured a 2 games to 1 series win for the Dragons in this crucial region series.

In Game 1, Tuesday night, the Dragons faced tough pitching and only managed two hits for the evening by  #20 Taylor Wilkes and #8 Hunter Thompson both reaching base in the 6th inning.  Otherwise the Dragons were kept quite for the evening as only 3 Dragon's reached base.  #22 Micah Carpenter took the loss on the hill as he pitched 4 innings and allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, while recording 5 Ks.  #14 Asher Standridge came on in relief with 1 inning of work and allowing 2 runs off 1 hit and 1 K.  #19 Christian Hutch and #13 Jared Bates each recorded an inning each to close out the game and kept the Warriors off the board the rest of the way.  This was the Dragons 2nd loss of the season and 1st region loss.

Fast forward to Friday night's double-header and the Dragons had a completely different outcome sweeping the twin bill over the Warriors.  In game 1, #7 Ethan Garner took the start on the hill.  Garner pitched 7 complete innings to earn the win for the Dragons recording a dominating 10 Ks and allowing only 2 runs off a home run in the 4th and 5 hits for the game.  Additional defensive support came off a diving stop by shortstop #9 Jake Franklin to turn a 6-4-3 Double-Play in the 5th.  Offensively, the Dragons were helped with hits across the order with #18 Will Breese knocking in the 1st run off a RBI Double in the 1st and then scoring on a Sacrifice Fly by Micah Carpenter.  Additional runs were scored off RBI Sacrifice Flies by Jake Franklin and Christian Hutch.

Game 2 of the double header saw the Dragon take another win as they took control and rolled to a 7-2 win over the Warriors.  Taylor Wilkes got the start on hill for game 2.  Battling through a couple of tough innings to start the game, Wilkes took control and threw 5 innings and recording 4 Ks and allowing 2 runs on 6 hits.  Asher Standridge came on in relief in the 6th and kept the Warriors off the board with 1 K and 2 hits allowed.  Jake Franklin closed out the game for the Dragons in the 7th with just 1 hit allowed and 0 runs allowed.  Will Breese came up big in the 4th, turning a 4-3 Double-Play to help the Dragons efforts defensively.  Offensively, Wilkes helped his cause out by going 2-for-4 and scoring 3 runs.  Franklin, Carpenter, and Garner each contributed offensively with 2 RBI each for the game.

The Jefferson Dragons now stand with a 9-2 record and are 5-1 in Region 8AAA play.  This week they face their next region opponent, East Jackson.  Come out and support the Dragons!