The bats sprang to life last week for Lake Oconee Academy’s baseball team during a series against Lincoln County.
The Titans outscored the Red Devils 33-3 in their first region series of the season, improving their record to 6-5.
LOA faced a tough non-region schedule, and its offense had difficulty against strong pitching. However, Coach Mark Miller believed that his players needed to face that level of pitching before starting region play.
“We’ve been able to compete with everyone on the pitching front, but more importantly, after [facing the caliber of pitchers we encountered] against Lincoln, our bats came alive,” Miller explained. “Lincoln is a young baseball team. I think they start four or five freshmen on their varsity team, but teams really take advantage of their opponents when they’re down, and we were able to do that. I’ve been really impressed with our pitching all year, but I’m really pleased that our bats seem to be coming around now in region play.”
Evan Burton, John Funderburke, Ike O’Neal, and William King had strong performances at the plate last week for the Titans against Lincoln County. They’ve been some of their most consistent hitters so far this year.
Miller has been impressed with the production he’s seen from each player.
“Those are probably our top four guys,” he said of Burton, Funderburke, King, and O’Neal. “They’re a consistent group, but we’re strong from top to bottom.”
Burton had a massive game against the Red Devils in a 15-1 victory to begin the series. He went 2-for-4 with a team-high four RBIs and two runs scored. O’Neal also batted 2-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored.
In game two, LOA got production from several others, proving Miller’s point right about the depth of his lineup.
Cam Kelley was productive in a 10-0 win in game two with three hits, two RBIs, and a run scored. Jake McDonald went 2-for-3 at the plate and scored twice. Parks Higham also drove in two runs with a run scored.
Game three had a closer result with the Titans winning 8-2, although Burton, Griffin Stanford, and O’Neal performed well at the plate. Each had multi-hit games, with Burton and Stanford also driving in a combined five runs. O’Neal, Funderburke, and Burton scored seven total runs against Lincoln County in game three.
Miller said the team’s approach to the plate hasn’t changed, but is pleased his players are starting to see the ball better.
“We’re looking for pitches that we like right from the start. It’s that dead-red mentality where we seek fastballs and require you to prove you can throw breaking balls right away, which is something people are beginning to do,” Miller said. “They’re starting to pitch us backward a bit early in the count, and that’s fine, but we’re trying to see pitches as clearly as we can and put them in play.
"We discuss that constantly. Just put it in play and make the other team play defense. Oftentimes, more often than not, people kick it around.”
LOA boasted a 6-5 record at the end of last week and hopes to keep the bats rolling against Washington-Wilkes this week.