Games 188-189 - Bunting!

July 24
Rockdale Post 77 (GA) vs. Albany Post 30 (GA)
Covington Post 32 (GA) vs. Leesburg Post 182 (GA)
Bobby Boss Stadium in Loganville, GA

Rockdale and Covington, two American Legion teams separated by about 15 miles, each stayed unbeaten in the Georgia state tournament and will meet Saturday in the winner's bracket final. Based on the first two days of this double-elimination tournament, 77 and 32 are clearly the top two teams in the state, and regardless of the outcome of Saturday's game, I fully expect to see a repeat match up for the title a day later.

Of course, the loser will have to win once in the loser's bracket, then beat its area rival twice to win the championship.

Leesburg, which lost 21-10, trailed 11-4 in the bottom of the fifth when Robbie Feagans led off with a single. Carlton Ogletree was then asked to sacrifice Feagans to second, and he was successful. Here are all of my problems with this strategy:

1. Leesburg had 15 outs left and they chose to just give one to Covington.

"Here you go, Covington, take one of our outs, we don't need, want or care about them," said someone.

2. Leesburg trailed 11-4. They were down seven in the fifth inning and PLAYING FOR ONE RUN.

3. If you think Covington is all finished scoring at 11 runs, then playing for one run per inning means you trail 11-9 after nine innings.

4. Games only last nine innings.

5. Covington certainly wasn't finished scoring runs, because they are

- the defending state champions
- very good again this year and scoring a ton of runs (and about ready to add 10 more runs over the next four innings)

Anyway, guess which team didn't score in that inning?

I don't think bunting is a completely terrible strategy, it has its moments, But none of those moments are "down 7 with 15 outs left".

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