Staff Reports

    The highly–anticipated inaugural Morgan County Amateur Golf Championship has moved to Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18.
    The event, sponsored by Madison’s Long Shadow Golf Club and the Morgan County Citizen is a 36 hole individual stroke play event with several divisions including seniors, super seniors, women and juniors. An overall Morgan County Amateur champion will be selected from the championship flight.
    The tournament will be held at Long Shadow Golf  Club, a course that has received countless national  and state accolades for both playability and difficulty.
    Cost to enter is $110 if received on or before October 9 and $125 if received after October 9. The entry fee includes green fees, golf cart fees and range balls. A closest to the hole contest will also be held on Friday, October 17 in conjunction with the event.
    The Morgan County Amateur Golf Championship is open to all area golfers. Sponsors are seeking to provide a tournament atmosphere for area golfers who want to compete in an individual stroke play tournament complete with leader boards a tournament atmosphere.
    Divisions will be established by handicaps, age and gender. Senior men and ladies will be 50–years–old or older; juniors will be 16 and under and all will play tees appropriate for their ages. There will be multiple junior age groups. Men and women 17–years–old to 49–years–old will play in the flighted open divisions based on handicap.
    Golfers seeking to establish a handicap may do so at Long Shadow Golf Course for an annual $35 fee.
    Prizes for the event will be determined by number of entries.

Staff Reports

    The Morgan  County High School volleyball team’s dream of a perfect season was dashed last week after the squad dropped a Tuesday night opener against Loganville. Playing at Loganville, Morgan County lost the match in two games, losing 25–15 and 25–23.
    “We beat ourselves,” said Morgan County Head Coach Pam Turner. “We didn’t play well at  all, error after error after error.”
    The Lady Dogs bounced back in the second match of the night at Loganville High School and defeated Salem High School in two straight games 25–21 and 25–5. In the Salem contest Turner switched setters with strikers in the first game to offer players a chance to learn new positions. In the second game, she said, the team stepped on the gas. “We tried some different things in the first game and in the second game we decided to get the win and get out.”
    On Thursday a focused Morgan County team traveled to Cedar Shoals High School in Athens and played inspired volleyball against the strong opponent.
    Morgan County won the match in two straight games 25–14 and 25–21. “They looked really good. We showed up to play. We anticipated that Cedar Shoals were a better team and we showed up to play a better team.”
    Turner said the Cedar Shoals win was a truly team effort. “The kills were spread around well. Nobody really dominated so they couldn’t focus on just one person and shut them down.”

Staff Reports

    The Morgan County Middle School Lady Pups fast pitch softball team increased its season record to 4–1 with wins over Putnam County and Monticello.
    The Lady Pups edged out a 6–5 win against Putnam County on Tuesday in a contest that included a lack of control at the mound. For the game the Lady Pups relied on Sarah Beth Taylor, Aubree Cox and Hayden Massey on the mound.
    According to Head Coach Sarah Titshaw, the Lady Pups put 14 batters on base with either walks or struck batters. All of Putnam’s runs were scored off forced base runners.
    However, the Lady Pups were led at the plate with a home run by Laree Van Orden and the defense settled in to earn the Lady Pups the win. Meagan McSherry and Aubree Cox also had successful swings at the plate in the game.
    “We didn’t hit that well but our defense was much better than it was a week ago,” Coach Titshaw said.
    In the Monticello match up the Lady Pups played with focus and determination in a 13–4 victory. “This was by far our best game of the year,” Titshaw said. “We hit the ball and ran the bases well and played good defense.”
    Cox pitched all five innings in the contest. Taylor, Hodgson, McSherry, VanOrden and Cox all added hits in the win. VanOrden also came up with some big stops behind the plate to stymie Monticello scoring opportunities.
    “If we could play at that level every time out on the field we could compete with anybody. I was really proud of the teams’ level of play and their attitude. We need to keep that up going into this week when we have big games against Loganville and Social Circle.”

Staff Reports

    Ashlee Batchelor has found her groove on the mound for the Morgan County High School JV fast pitch softball team.
    Batchelor delivered five solid innings of pitching to lead the Lady Dogs to a 8–0 win over Archer High School. The game was called in the fifth on the run rule.
    Batchelor threw 12 strike–outs in the game, allowed no walks and gave up a stingy three hits. The win elevates the Morgan County JV squad total record to 3–5 and has them on a three game winning streak.
    “I’m real pleased with the way we’re playing. We’re hitting the ball well and playing great defense,” Head Coach Brandon Patch said.
    Offensively for the Lady Dogs Morgan Hodgson went 2–4 at the plate with three RBI and a double. Victoria Thomas went 2–3 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored. Batchelor helped her own cause by going 2–4 at the plate with an RBI, a scored run and a double. The game was played last Thursday at home.

Staff Reports

    Elizabeth Rogers has found her groove.
    The Morgan County Lady Dog volleyball stand–out has defined consistency this year at the server’s line. Rogers is 93–98 at the server’s line for a 95 percent success rate.
    That consistency has led the Lady Dogs as they continue to chew through competition and keep their season record at a perfect 8–0 mark.
    On Tuesday the Lady Dogs dropped East Jackson 25–18 and 25–16 behind Rogers perfect 7–7 effort serving and an 11–12 serving record of Layne Jackson.
    The Lady Dogs also defeated Alcovy on Tuesday, taking the first game of the match 25–16. The Lady Dogs lost the second match to Alcovy 25–21 but came back in the third with a convincing 25–19 win. In the Alcovy match Rogers again was perfect at the line, going 16–16.
    On Thursday the Lady Dogs defeated Gainesville in two straight games 25–17 and 25–13. In the second contest for the night, the Lady Dogs faced region rival Eastside and rose to the challenge. The Lady Dogs defeated Eastside 26–24 in the first game, lost the second 26–24 but stormed back in the third to win 25–13.
    Eastside easily provided the toughest competition the team has seen this year but consistent serving and aggressive floor play made the difference for Morgan County. As a team the Lady Dogs recorded 27 kills in the match. Miranda Parson delivered 11 kills and Sarah Mullins added nine. Taylor Croft set Morgan County’s strikers up with 20 assists.
    “It was a great team effort to come back and beat Eastside in the third game,” said Morgan County Head Coach Pam Turner.

By Alvin Richardson
Sports Staff

    On an August night that felt more like fall, Morgan County opened their 2009 campaign losing to the Mary Persons Bulldogs 38 –14.  Morgan fought their visitors from Forsyth to a 0 – 0 standoff in the first quarter and missed a chance to seize an early advantage when they lost the ball on downs at the Mary Persons 17 yard line. That came on the heels of a beautiful 59–yard, 16–play drive that chewed clock and saw the Dogs penetrate to the 10 yard line before a holding penalty set them back.  A fourth down pass fell incomplete to end the threat.  On that drive quarterback John Dustin Hawkins went 21 yards on a keeper and a Mary Persons late hit added 15 more to it. Also on the drive Hawkins completed back to back passes to Drew Stapleton and Cody Lovin and the Dogs were in business at the visitors 10.  From there a penalty set them back and Morgan could advance no further than the 17.
    Head coach Bill Malone provided his assessment of the game.  “Mary Persons is a good football team but if we had eliminated a few silly mistakes the score would have been much different.  I’d like to thank everyone who came out and supported us last Friday night.”
    Mary Persons put their foot on the gas in the second quarter. The visiting Dogs went 83 yards in six lightning plays to score the game’s first touchdown at the 11:52 mark of the second period. The PAT was good and Persons led 7-0.
    Morgan went three and out on the ensuing possession and on the punt Mary Persons fumbled, picked it up, and returned it all the way to Morgan’s 19 yard line. It took them only two plays to score from there and make it 14-0 at the 9:19 mark of quarter number two.