By HARVEY SIMPSON

Dispatch Sports Editor

CORDELE — Crisp County High’s Cougars scratched two different kind of “itches” they had during a Friday game against eighth-ranked Class A Schley County.

Their first itching was to avenge the 5-4 loss the Wildcats had dealt them 17 days earlier in Ellaville and to do so by an 8-5 score they used bats, balls and gloves.

Fingernails relieved the second that was brought about by bites from the horde of mosquitoes swarming the Cougar Den playing area even as a crop-dusting plane chemically sprayed an adjoining field.

“I don’t know if you could really say it was the revenge factor that motivated us for this one,” said Crisp head coach Bill Pate who during the game light-heartedly reminded his players the mosquito problem would lessen once it got dark.

“The way we approach going up against a team that has beaten us before is with the idea to come back and be competitive the next time we meet so that we can prove our abilities. I think we did that today with one of those ‘ugly’ wins we’ll gladly take any time.”

Most of the ugliness took part on defense where all but one of the runs Schley managed against senior righthander Ben Massey during his route-going, 10-hit effort were unearned.

Some of it also took place on the basepaths where a few of the “warts” vanished when the Cougars proved smart enough to turn negative situations into somewhat positive ones.

Schley, which entered the game with a 7-2 record identical to that of its host, picked up three tainted tallies to start the game.

After a pair of throwing errors put runners on the corners to open the contest, an infield hit got one run across, Will Gordon’s sharp ground single plated a second and a throwing error on a delayed steal produced the third.

The Wildcats promptly proved to be slightly charitable themselves, committing two errors that led to a first inning Crisp run recorded on Marc Overstreet’s sacrifice fly.

The Cougars drew even in the third that began with Keith Morris bouncing a single between shortstop and third base and Rick Fultz laying down a bunt that went for a hit instead of an intended sacrifice. A wild pitch moved both into scoring position for Bo Carter whose single to left tied matters at 3-3. Blake Wilson later singled in Carter for a 4-3 lead.

Schley picked up its fourth unearned run of the evening in the fourth when a throwing error by Crisp and an infield hit set the stage for a bloop single that snarled things at 4-4.