The Putnam County War Eagles baseball team got off to a rough start this season with an 0-4 record before finally scoring their first victory Monday night with a 17-4 decision at home against Athens Academy.
They opened with a pair of away losses to Banks County, scoring just one run while giving up 11 in each contest, then dropped a 2-1 decision on the road against Lake Country rival Lake Oconee Academy last Thursday. Then, last Friday, the War Eagles fell at home 12-11 to the Jasper County Hurricanes.
Senior pitcher Ashton Jones was on the mound and had a memorable night, giving up only six hits and striking out five batters while walking three in six innings on the mound. Jones also led off the Putnam batting order, getting a single in the first inning and earning a walk in the fourth inning.
Jasper jumped out to a one-run lead in the first and extended it by one in the second inning and by two in the third.
Putnam rallied to tie the game up in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of an earned walk from Tanner Lukens, followed by a single from Jackson Dodd and earned walks from Ashton Jones and Gates Lanzarone that scored Lukens.
A single from Dakota Jones scored a run by Dodd and then Brannen Griffin walked to score Jones. Hunter Holder reached first on an error by the Jasper catcher and Lanzarone scored to tie the game up at 4-4.
Ashton Jones gave up a go-ahead run to Jasper in the fifth inning before the War Eagles answered with two of their own in the bottom of the sixth.
A double by Dakota Jones, who would score on a Wyatt Sims bunt, was followed by a run from Griffin to give Putnam a 6-5 lead. Ashton Jones started the seventh inning on the mound but was taken out after giving up one run.
Tanner Lukens then came in as relief and got one out, walked four, hit one batter and gave up five runs. Dakota Jones came in as the second relief pitcher of the inning and got the last two outs, but not before giving up the seventh Jasper run of the inning.
Now facing a 12-6 deficit, the War Eagle batters showed resiliency and scored five runs, with Lanzarone, Dakota Jones, Griffin, Sims and Holder each scoring once, but ultimately coming up short in a hard-fought comeback attempt.
The War Eagles demonstrated admirable resiliency at the plate all night, something that is sure to pay off throughout the season. Making the team’s resiliency that much more impressive, they had five freshmen and one sophomore start against Jasper County and those underclassmen led Putnam's offensive in a comeback attempt that fell just one run short.
The War Eagles made a quick turnaround with their next game coming this past Monday night in Eatonton against the Athens Academy Spartans. It was already 8-3 in favor of Putnam by the end of the opening inning and the War Eagles had extended their lead to 11-3 by the end of the second.
The Spartans managed one last run in the third inning, but Putnam responded with another six scores in the bottom of the fourth. When Athens Academy failed to score in the fifth, the game was called with a final 17-4 decision finally putting the War Eagles into the W column.
Putnam County returned to action Tuesday night (Feb.21) at home against the Social Circle Redskins (2-0) (too close to press time for results), before repaying the visit to Social Circle on Feb. 23, then visiting Athens Academy for a Feb. 27 game.