Wilcox County Falls in the GHSA A Division Two State Championship
The 27-10 Wilcox County Patriots ended their season against the Lanier County Bulldogs in the GHSA A Divison-II State Championship
STATESBORO, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) – On Tuesday at J.J. Clements Stadium on the campus of Georgia Southern University, the Wilcox County Patriots faced the Lanier County Bulldogs in just the Patriots’ second state championship in program history.
In game one, Senior Pitcher Johnny Nutt dealt 13 strikeouts, including a three up-three down frame in the top first and the top seventh to close out the game with a 5-1 Wilcox County victory.
In game two, the Patriots gave up three runs in the bottom first to fall behind early. However, Wilcox County scored three runs of their own to tie the game up at three in the Top 3rd. Although, the Bulldogs would go onto score four runs on five hits in the Bottom 5th and seven runs in the Bottom 6th to end the game on a six inning run-rule with a 16-6 Patriots loss to split the series and force a game three.
On Wednesday, these two teams met back at J.J. Clements Stadium for a winner-take-all matchup. Wilcox County scored the first run of the game on a RBI single from Myles Davis. However, after the Patriots grabbed their last hit of the game in the top third, that would do them in. Lanier County would take game three 4-1 for back-to-back titles.
After the game, Wilcox County Head Coach Stephen McDuffie spoke about how proud he is of these student-athletes that have been playing together most of their lives.
“It means a lot” said Coach McDuffie. “I’m proud of these guys for the effort they had this year. They played so hard for each other. From the first pitch to last pitch. Today, they fought the butts off the last pitch. We almost hit it off the wall at the end of the game. They’re here fighting hard for each other, just picking each other up and just telling each other, hey, we’re not done, we’re not done, we’re still fighting. And that’s just a testament to their who they are as young men. It’s huge. You know, spending this time together, we talked a lot last night and this morning about how this is last time this team, this team right here, will be together in this capacity. And you know, you can just feel the love they have for each other and how much they just want to spend time with each other as much as they could, as long as they can.”
Coach went onto speak about making it back to the title series. “We have a culture here. These kids have said it. We talked out there, don’t let it be this long again before we get back, you know. So the bar has been set, and now some of these junior sophomores, impressed me to get back.”
Coach then got emotional about his time as the baseball coach coming to an end to take over the football program. “Its hard to think about I’ve been doing it for 21 years. It’s hard to think about not being on the baseball field and being the head coach of these young men. But just get an opportunity to do the same thing in a different capacity, and be able to lead more young men in that situation and I’m just humbled for the opportunity.”
This ends the Patriots’ season at 27-10.
