The Morgan County Middle School's golf team played against Social Circle last Friday at Hard Labor Creek State Park. The MCMS boys' team beat Social Circle by eight strokes on the course, but the girls lost by five strokes. The MCMS teams will compete against Social Circle again today at Hard Labor Creek. photo by patrick yost

Printed in the March 21, 2013 edition

mchs varsity soccer teams count second region wins, mcms soccer hosts greene

A couple of years ago, my cousin’s husband, Alvin Erb, told me that he was going to introduce me to a sport called “disc golf” and that he thought that I was really going to like it.
For those of you who don’t know me: I don’t ever like anything new... at first.
However – perhaps it goes without saying – I became very interested in disc golf that first day, and I’ve been playing ever since.
But back to that first time.
After finding a few courses on the internet, Alvin settled on a course in Watkinsville to try out.
Still skeptical that I would enjoy the experience, I accompanied him out to a course in Watkinsville without knowing a thing about the game.
At the car where we parked, he handed me one disc out of a bag of about 20 and began to explain the basics of the game to me.
The explanation went something like this:
The game is played like golf, except you play it with discs, or frisbees.
Normal courses have 18 holes, except, in disc golf, they are known as “baskets,” since the discs are thrown at and, eventually, into baskets.
The player stands at a tee pad, which can be anything including two marks in the ground or a concrete pad to stand on and tries to throw a disc into the basket, which is usually 250-350 feet away.
After the first shot, or “drive”, the player finds their disc and throws from the location of the disc after its first landing and so on until the disc is in the basket.
Just like in golf, each basket has a par, usually three throws, and the player tries to make it into the basket in that many throws.
In its basic form, that is all disc golf involves.
But even the average disc golf player uses a variety of throws and discs to achieve the best shots.

By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Morgan County’s varsity baseball team lost to Eastside 5-8 last Wednesday at home, bringing their record to 4-4 so far this season.
The Dogs couldn’t get their bats started until the bottom of the third inning, when Brantley Frost was able to make it home on an RBI single by Sawyer Hill.
Frost, who pitched through the first four innings and allowed only two earned runs, was relieved by Eli Zimmerman in the fifth inning.
Unfortunately, a combination of errors allowed Eastside to get six runners across the plate during Eli Zimmerman’s two innings on the mound. None of Zimmerman’s runs were allowed
Morgan County also managed to score two more runs in the fifth inning. Carter Shultz hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth, and then Sawyer Hill scored from third base on an out by Clark Owen.
The Dogs scored another two innings in the seventh, thanks to a two-RBI single by Andrew Couch with two outs.
Morgan County’s two runs in the seventh weren’t enough to catch up with Eastside, who won the game 5-8.
Tuesday, the varsity Diamond Dogs faced off against Eastside again, this time in Covington, hoping to break the 6-0 record that Eastside has compiled so far this season. Wednesday, the team played against Social Circle at home, with the game beginning at 5:55.
Monday, Morgan County will be traveling to Augusta to play the Aquinas Fightin’ Irish. The game will begin at 4 p.m.

Printed in the March 14, 2013 edition

By Nick Nunn   
Staff Writer

The JV Diamond Dogs extended their perfect season by two games last week with an 8-4 win over Oconee and a 10-4 win over Salem, bringing their record to 6-0.
Morgan County struck first against Oconee. Max Wadsworth hit an RBI double in the top of the first to give the Dogs an early 1-0 lead.
Oconee responded by scoring two runs in the second and then two more in the fourth inning, while holding Morgan County scoreless through the fourth.
In the top of the fifth, the Dogs began producing runs again. With two men on base, Sam Couch hit a two-RBI triple to make the score 3-4.
Oconee’s pitcher walked the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning and proceeded to walk Ross Gasque for a RBI base on balls.
Coming up with the bases still loaded, Sam Couch recorded two more RBIs for the night with a single to left field.
Still leading 6-4 in the seventh inning, Morgan County scored twice more on RBIs off the bats of Zach Howe and Maclane Zant. The final score of the game ended 8-4.
“I was proud of the way the boys battled back,” said JV coach Doug Connelly. “We hung with it.”
The game against Salem last Friday was a scheduled five-inning game.
Morgan County scored two runs in the top of the fifth on an RBI double by Ross Gasque, but Salem matched the Dogs’ output in the bottom of the inning, tying the score 2-2
In the second inning, however, Morgan County set a pace that Salem couldn’t keep up with. The Dogs scored one run in the second on a passed ball, before a combination of errors and an RBI double by Max Wadsworth brought an additional three runs home.
Salem kept the Dogs’ bats at bay until the fifth, when Morgan County came alive again, prompted by another run walked in by the opposing defense.

By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

During the last two days of February, the Morgan County Middle School tennis team competed against North Oconee and Jefferson City. Last week, the tennis squad played a rematch against North Oconee before having to cancel matches against Hart County directly before spring break.
The girls’ team won all three meets by large margins, but the boys did not far as well, losing all three matches to their opponents.
In the boys’ first meeting with North Oconee, Morgan County was swept in seven matches, but Will Owen managed an 8-3 singles victory in the rematch against North Oconee.
The boys’ team was also credited with a doubles victory against Jefferson City, but it was two female players, Avery Kirby and Caroline Rittenhouse, who defeated a boys’ doubles team from Jefferson City.
The Morgan County girls managed 5-1 wins over North Oconee in both of their competitions.
Avery Kirby, Caroline Rittenhouse, Lily Courchaine, Mariella Plumley, and Callie Arienzo picked up singles wins against North Oconee in their matches. Arienzo managed victories against North Oconee in the space of a week.
Kirby, Rittenhouse, Courchaine, Plumley, Arienzo, Chloe Cooper, Madison Gasque, and Carley Henry were all members of doubles teams that were able to beat their North Oconee opponents in the two events.
Against Jefferson City, Gasque, Cooper, and Arienzo scored victories in singles matches, while Kirby and Rittenhouse earned a doubles victory.
The MCMS tennis teams had matches scheduled against Hart County last Friday afternoon, but they were cancelled because of a large number of students leaving town early for spring break.
There will be no matches during spring break, but the tennis team will be back in action Tuesday, March 19 on the road at Jefferson.