Cartersville edged at 2nd-ranked Troup, Tigers clinch region title

Cartersville’s Anthony Seigler homered and tossed a three-hitter Tuesday night at Troup County, but the 2nd-ranked Tigers edged the 5th-ranked Hurricanes 2-1 with a late run and clinched the 2017 Region 5-AAAA championship.

Troup has region losses to Central-Carrollton and Cedartown, but swept two games with both LaGrange and Cartersville.

Troup scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning when Jared Helton led off with a double, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Ryan Bliss’ second sacrifice fly of the game.

Cartersville threatened in the seventh and had runners at second and third, but failed to push either across.

Troup led 1-0 after one inning on a double, sac bunt, and a sacrifice fly by Bliss.

Seigler tied it for the Canes with a solo home run in the top of the sixth.

Cartersville finished with six hits.

In addition to Seigler’s dinger, Noah Daniel, Jake Gooch, Spencer Dickey, Preston Welchel, and Ian Inaba had hits.

Helton (6 IP, 1ER, 4H 0BB, 2K) was the winning pitcher for Troup. Colby Williams (1IP, 0R, 2H, 1K) earned a one-inning save in the seventh.

Troup County improved to 18-10 overall and 9-2 in Region 5-AAAA. The Tigers finish the region schedule Thursday at Sandy Creek.

Cartersville (21-8, 7-4) closes out the regular season region slate Thursday at Richard Bell Field vs. Central-Carrollton and appears likely to open the state playoffs on the road as either a three- or four-seed behind Troup and LaGrange with Cedartown also in the mix.

LaGrange (7-4 in 5-AAAA) has a region game remaining Thursday at Chapel Hill. Cedartown (8-4) has finished its region games.