This past weekend a collection of some of Baldwin County’s best baseball players proved their worth as they won the GRPA Class “B” State Championship in Guyton.

With the tournament starting Thursday, when the heat index was around 108 degrees, the Baldwin boys proved they were just as hot.

“We only had nine players the first day and were playing against the host Effingham County team, so we weren’t sure what to expect,” said head coach Keith Jump.

But any uneasiness went away as Baldwin jumped out quickly with the mentality “get them on, get them over, and get them in.” Brandon Thomas reached first on an infield hit and was moved over on a sacrifice bunt by Tyler Jump. Brent Dyer, the starting pitcher, then got a hit to bring the runner in for the first score of the day.

This would be a lead that the Baldwin team would not relinquish or come close to losing. Dyer would have to leave the mound after the second inning due to arm soreness and be relieved by DeAndre Thomas.

Thomas would come in and pitch masterfully for his team as he would shut down the opponents for the rest of the game.

Behind hits from everyone in the lineup, which included both the Thomas brothers, Jump, Dyer, Caleb Scoggins, Robert Jones, T.J. Osborne, Jonathon Krupke and Mitch Beall, the All-Stars would cruise to an easy 7-3 win in the opening game.

Baldwin’s second game would be against the Savannah Sand Vipers on Friday morning, and Baldwin would have all its players as Braxton Hurt, Nolan Baugh and Dusty Tyson would make the trip almost three hours away. Baldwin would lose this game 6-3 due to errors at key moments and not being able to get the necessary hits.

“In game two we actually gave it away as they scored five of their runs on errors. But I knew we were the better team and we just had to focus,” said Jump.

Baldwin would have to play again the same afternoon against a much bigger Warner Robins team. Going into the bottom of the fifth inning down 5-1, it looked as if Baldwin would be coming back to Milledgeville sooner than they wanted. But this scrappy bunch of guys had a different idea in their heads.

“When I came down here I knew we had big shoes to fill as Walter Prestwood and Chris Wood had set the bar high for us to try and achieve what they had in the past,” said Jump. “But I’ve been lucky enough to watch coaches like Donnie Coburn and Garry Couch and learn some from them. But the biggest advantage I’ve had is learning things from Chris Wood, Tony Hurt and Greg McGibboney. They have all coached in such a manner it was easy for me to absorb what they were doing. That’s how I was able to stay calm and know we would come back.”

So with only six outs left, B. Thomas would get a sharp hit to center and T. Jump would then lay down a bunt that the third baseman could not deliver to first. The ball would sail over the first baseman’s head as Thomas scored and Jump streaked for third standing up. Scoggins would then knock him in and cut the lead to 5-3.

After setting the Warner Robins team down in their half of the sixth, Baldwin would come in and score three runs to take the lead on key hits by D. Thomas and Hurt, while Mitch Beall would steal two more bases (a total of seven for the tournament). The game- winning hit would go to Nolan Baugh.

Baugh came into Saturday’s games and helped solidify the infield and proved his worth on both the offensive and defensive sides of the diamond.

Dusty Tyson would set the Warner Robins team down in the top of the seventh, setting up Baldwin for the championship round on the following day against the Savannah team.

Knowing they had to win game one to get to game two, Tyson was elected to start and he pitched a gem of a game according to coach Jump.

“This game was filled with hits, sacrifices, stolen bases and the up tempo game we wanted. Nolan had a key double, Tyler had a hard single to right, Mitch stole some more bases and everyone contributed to this winning effort,” Jump said.

With a lead of 4-1, Baldwin went on to set up their pitching for the next game and took out Tyson and put Hurt in to close out the last three innings — and close it out he did.

Hurt showed his moxie and metal as he pitched around some walks and hit batsman to preserve the win for his team.

“We would score three more runs with T.J. and Jonathon playing key rolls in getting on or either moving runners into scoring position,” Jump said. “Also Robert proved to everyone that he can play at the next level, and Caleb was our rock as he called all the pitches and caught every inning of every game.”

With Baldwin up 7-1 and two outs in the last inning, a player from Savannah slid into home and threw his elbows into Caleb Scoggins at the plate and was ejected.

This would give Baldwin another State Championship in the 17 and under division.

“I would like to thank Mike Dyer, Donna Baugh, Mary Hurt, Bill McNair, Tasha Walls, Robert Jones and Kimberly Thomas for coming all the way down to support and root us on to victory. I would also like to thank Walter Prestwood and Bill McNair for having the confidence in me to lead this team of fine young men. But most of all I want to thank all of my players for listening and believing in what I had them do and then going out and executing it,” said a proud coach Jump.

So Baldwin County, you can be proud of your kids. They did you proud and represented you well. Congratulations to the 2009 GRPA Class “B” State Champs!