At the midpoint of the season, Morgan County’s baseball team is playing solid and entered this week on a tear.
The Diamond Dogs recently started region play last week by sweeping the Academy of Richmond County, outscoring the Musketeers 18-3 in two games. They added another region win on Tuesday, a 24-0 rout of Salem.
Following Tuesday’s win, Morgan County sits at 10-3 overall and 3-0 in Region 4-3A. The Diamond Dogs entered the week ranked No. 3 behind region rival Harlem and Pickens but just want to keep improving “as a team.”
Morgan County head coach Steve Westmoreland is proud his players have kept a level head throughout the season. They’ve endured a rigorous non-region schedule and had several games delayed due to bad weather.
Westmoreland also acknowledged his team is doing whatever it can to improve, whether at the plate or on the field.
“We’re just trying to get better every day. We’re continuing to pitch well, and that’s our obvious strength,” Westmoreland said. “We’ve got a lot of depth, but trying to find innings for some of our guys has been hard due to the rainouts, but we’re throwing the ball well.
There are still a few areas we can improve, such as infield play, and we’re striking out too much at the plate. So, we’re working on a two-strike approach and are just trying to be better offensively each day. We’re just trying to do something daily to improve as a team.”
Morgan County’s pitching rotation is solid and deep enough to help the team make a playoff run. While the Diamond Dogs are trying to improve at the plate, several guys can reach base consistently and drive in runs.
Davis Strickland, Ty Tillery, Tripp Lancaster, David Denton, Hudson Reed, and others have swung the bat well.
“We’re getting an even distribution. It seems like it’s a different guy every day,” Westmoreland added. “I don’t think we’ve gotten hot at the plate yet, we’ve got several guys swinging it well, but haven’t peaked yet. We want to be playing our best baseball at the end of the year. We’ve certainly got some room to grow offensively.”
As far as depth goes on the mound with Strickland, Tillery, Reed, Caylem Richardson, Skylar McCoy, and others, Westmoreland feels it’s the strength of the team. He thinks it will help once the state playoffs start.
“We’re not going to have to rely on two or three guys to try and extend games for us,” Westmoreland said. “They don’t need to go five or six innings every time they go out. If a guy is off that day, we can make an early call to the bullpen and get an arm out there we’re confident in, which gives us a chance to keep games close.”
Morgan County has competed against and defeated several schools from larger Georgia High School Association (GHSA) classifications, including Eastside, Newton, Walnut Grove, and Lanier. Two of the Diamond Dogs’ three losses came against LaGrange, a semifinalist in GHSA’s Class 4A last season, and Augusta Christian, which won the South Carolina Independent School Association Class 4A state championship last year.
Westmoreland wanted to test his team with tough competition to help better prepare it for the postseason. The schedule doesn’t get any easier with matchups against Mary Persons and Brookwood the rest of this week.
Mary Persons is a team Morgan County is familiar with. The Diamond Dogs eliminated the Bulldogs of Forsyth from the Class 3A state playoffs a few years ago. Brookwood is currently ranked No. 3 in Class 7A.
Next month, Morgan County will also face Harlem, Class 3A’s defending state champion and top-ranked team.
“I feel like we compete and fight against good teams,” Westmoreland said. “We’re still trying to learn how to play with a sense of urgency earlier in games. Trying to get ahead early in games rather than play from behind, but something we noticed early on is that our guys will fight. We’re just trying to take care of business.”