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Though coming up on the short end of an 11-5 loss to YVC nemesis South Davidson Wednesday evening, the Bulldogs were much closer than the final score indicated and at one point seemed to be on their way to a win.
But one letdown in the fourth inning put the wheels in motion for another difficult loss, dropping Thomasville to 2-10 overall, 0-6 in conference.
“One bad inning always seems to be our downfall, so if we can eliminate the bad inning we will be just fine,” said Thomasville coach Brian Kennedy. “We played good the first five innings. We hit the ball and responded when they got us down, but the score definitely doesn’t reflect how we played.”
THS led 4-2 in the middle of the fourth with a run in the first, two in the second and one more in the top half of the fourth. Starter Chris Brooks was settling into a zone on the hill and the Bulldogs were thinking victory. But South exploded for four runs in the inning to take a 6-4 lead, highlighted by an opposite-field, two-run homer by Barrett Clodfelter.
Thomasville had a chance to get a run back in the fifth loading the bases with two outs, but Brooks grounded out to first for the unassisted putout.
First baseman Vince Sanders got a scare in the bottom of the inning when a ball to a big hop and smacked him on the lip. The play soon led to another South run, leaving the Bulldogs trailing by three.
Sanders toughened up and had no time to worry about his lip being due up first in the sixth. He strutted to the box and walloped a round-tripper to left that rejuvenated the ‘Dogs.
Back in contention, Kennedy looked to the hard-throwing E.J. Abrams-Ward to keep the score where it was at. Instead, it turned into a disaster for the senior.
A leadoff walk to the last batter in the order sent Clodfelter up in another RBI situation. The senior tattooed the ball in almost the exact spot as before for his second home run of the game. South tacked on two more later in the inning to put a damper on the sound effort from the Bulldogs.
“It is a tough loss, but we still have to make progress for our conference tournament which is our longtime goal,” said Kennedy.
Thomasville is putting together stretches that have people believing they can be a contender later in the year. But as Kennedy has learned, playing in stretches will not get a ‘W’ in the win column. It takes a full seven innings of solid play to get the job done.
“Some games we push them, and others we have the same old story. If we could just put a game together without the errors and we hit the ball, we have a good shot of going places.”
Thomasville banged out nine hits as Sanders finished the game with two RBI. The Bulldogs play at Chatham Central on Friday.
Sports Editor Zach Kepley can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 234, or at kepley@tvilletimes.com.