Yesterday, the Dragons varsity baseball team hosted the Indians of Murray County at Dragons Field. After coming off of a tough defeat on Monday to Union, Pickens was looking to get back on track and even up their record heading in to region 7AAAA play.Tyler Garner took to the hill for the Dragons yesterday and he looked sharp. Garner struck out two Indians in the 1st and left runners stranded on first and second after they had reached on errors. In the bottom of the 1st, Zack Hermann got things going with a single, then stole second, then Cam Gregory moved him over to third with a single of his own. Travis Huffman brought in Hermann after grounding out to give the Dragons a 1-0 lead.

Walker Lawrence came up and tripled in Gregory to make it 2-0. Lawrence came in to score when Dalton Presley beat out a throw to first to make it 3-0 Pickens heading to the 2nd. Garner got Murray County in order on 8 pitches in the top of the inning while the Dragons added a run to their lead as Gregory doubled in Joseph Gossett to make it 4-0 going to the 3rd. In the 3rd, Garner continued his excellent pitching day as he struck out the side to send it to the bottom of the 3rd.

After going scoreless in the 3rd, Garner got back on the bump and struck out two more Indians to send us to the bottom of the 4th with Pickens ahead, 4-0. The Dragons got another run across in the bottom of the inning after Gregory hit a shot between the left and center fielders and made it home for an inside the park home run. Garner had another quick half inning in the 5th as he shut Murray County down on 10 pitches to send us to the bottom of the inning. Presley came around to score to extend the Pickens lead to 6-0 heading to the 6th.

Garner’s “no no” was broken up in the 6th, but he and the Dragons defense was able to keep that runner at second as we’d go to the bottom of the 6th with Pickens ahead, 6-0. Hermann scored after Huffman reached base on an error to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Dragons headed to the top of the 7th. Coach Bates pulled Garner after 6 1/3rd innings and brought in Jacob Gordon and he was able to get the final two outs to secure the shutout and the win, 7-0.

Cam Gregory went 3-4 with a single, a double, and a homerun driving in 2 runs and scoring 1

Zack Herman went 2-4 with 2 singles and 2 runs scored

Walker Lawrence went 1-2 with a triple, an RBI, and a run scored

Tyler Garner went 6 1/3rd innings giving up 2 hits, allowing no runs, and striking out 10 batters on 87 pitches

With that win, Pickens is back to .500 on the season at 4-4. Next week, 7AAAA play starts as the Dragons have three big games with two being at home. The big week starts off Tuesday as they host the Heritage Generals at 5:30 at Dragons Field.