Canes stopped by Buford
The Buford offense was productive and their pitching was solid, as the Wolves swept Cartersville 10-0 and 9-3 Tuesday at Richard Bell Field to advance to the 2015 Class AAAA state finals.
Buford’s Game 1 starting pitcher, Justin Glover, limited the Hurricanes to only four hits and a pair of walks in a five-inning shutout. Glover struck out six and needed only 73 pitches.
Meanwhile, the Wolves’ offense took a 3-0 lead through three innings off ‘Canes ace, Elliott Anderson and managed five more runs in the fourth innings to take an 8-0 lead.
Anderson took the opening loss, yielding six earned runs on seven hits, a pair of walks, and four hit batsmen.
Nick Wilhite had 3 RBI on a pair of hits to lead the Buford offensive attack. Brandon Marsh scored a pair of runs and had three hits. Glover, Austin White (RBI), Joey Bart (RBI), and Griffin Joliff (RBI) had the other Buford hits in Game 1.
Lane Wilson, Carrington Evans, Anderson, and Trent Frazier had the four Cartersville hits.
Buford followed up their first game victory by scoring six runs in the first three innings of Game 2 to take control.
Cartersville cut the lead to 6-3 in the top of the fourth, but the Wolves responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half and added another in the fifth for a 9-3 win.
Keyton Gibson was the winning pitcher of Game 2. He gave up three runs (only 1 earned) on eight hits and four walks. Gibson tallied eleven strikeouts in 5 and 2/3 innings.
Anthony Seigler took the pitching loss for the ‘Canes and Lane Wilson worked the final two innings on the mound for Cartersville.
Buford’s offense collected 13 hits in Game 2, including four by Austin Wilhite with two RBI. Nick Wilhite, Ian Jenkins, Glover, and Dillon Lancaster each added a pair of hits for the Wolves.
Frazier (RBI) and Anderson had two hits each to lead Cartersville. Wilson, Evans, Elliott Berrey, and Jacob Fowler added hits for the Canes.
With the semifinal sweep, Buford (32-2) advances to play Whitewater in the Class 4A state championship series beginning Saturday at Whitewater with a doubleheader. If a third game is needed, it would be played Memorial Day Monday.
Cartersville's season concludes with another deep run in the state playoffs and a 22-12 record. See Also: Jason Greenberg's story 'Cartersville's run ends to Buford' at The Daily Tribune News.
