Baseball: Canes no-hit Cedartown; Tigers stumble at Sonoraville
Cartersville baseball pounded out 14 hits and three pitchers combined for a mercy-rule shortened no-hitter as the Hurricanes blanked visiting Cedartown Thursday night at Richard Bell Field, 15-0.
Jake Gooch started on the mound for the Canes and went three strong innings with four strikeouts and a pair of walks. Curtis Wilkes followed and struggled by issuing a pair of walks and a hit batsman that loaded the bases, but Gage Morris entered to retire the side on a pair of come-backers to the mound. The first one started a pitcher-to-home-to-first double play and the second one finished off the inning without allowing a run.
Meanwhile, Cartersville’s bats put this one out of reach early with a 10-run first inning that included RBIs by seven different hitters.
The Canes added two more runs in the second inning and finished off the game with three in the fourth inning capped by John Reed Evans’ walkoff RBI double that ended the game via GHSA 15-run mercy rule.
Mason Barnett paced four Cartersville hitters with multi-hit games. Barnett was 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Jordan Wilkie, Chandler Tromza (two doubles), and Preston Welchel (double) each finished with two hits and two RBI.
Anthony Seigler drove in a two runs with a double. Cohen Wilbanks doubled in a run. Josh Davis had one hit and one RBI while Gooch added one hit and Ian Inaba drew a bases loaded walk for one RBI.
With the loss, Cedartown falls to 10-13 overall and 3-7 in Region 5-AAAA.
Cartersville (21-6, 9-0) travels to LaGrange Friday, hosts Troup County next Tuesday, and closes out the regular season at Central-Carroll next Thursday.
The Canes have a one-game lead over Troup County (8-1) in the region standings. The Tigers have region games Friday at home with Central-Carroll, at Cartersville next Tuesday, and at home with Sandy Creek next Thursday.
SONORAVILLE 13, ADAIRSVILLE 12
The Adairsville Tigers’ stumbled a bit Thursday night in their playoff chase in Region 6-AAA by dropping a 13-12 decision at Sonoraville.
The two teams swapped leads early, but Sonoraville scored five times in the bottom of the third inning to take a 9-5 advantage.
Adairsville stayed close with a three-run fourth inning to make the score 9-8, but a run in the fourth and two more in the fifth inning enabled the Phoenix to go up 12-8. Adairsville made the score 12-10 in the top of the sixth before Sonoraville scored in the bottom of the frame on a Gage Soulios homer for a 13-10 lead.
In the top of the seventh, Adairsville loaded the bases with no outs on three straight walks from two different Sonoraville pitchers. B.J. Roper scored on a wild pitch and Kyler Pelfrey singled home a run, but the Tigers rally stalled there and the Phoenix survived the last inning threat with a 13-12 win.
Four Sonoraville hitters — Soulios, Cole Godfrey, Wyatt Castoe, and Grant Hegwood — combined for ten of the 15 Phoenix hits. Sonoraville also had four players with two RBI each.
Caden Gibbs, who suffered the pitching loss, finished with three hits including a double and three RBI for the Tigers. Pelfrey had three RBI with two hits including a triple. Corey Nation doubled twice and drove in one run. Roper had two hits including a double. Hunter Hice had one double and two RBI while Halen Huskins and Michael Cook added one hit each.
With their win, Sonoraville improved to 9-12 overall and 5-9 in region play,
Adairsville (17-8, 10-5) now finds itself in a tightly bunched race for second through fifth place in their region. Bremen, Adairsville, Calhoun, and Haralson County all have either four or five region losses heading into the final week of games. The Tigers have three Region 6-AAA regular season games remaining. The Tigers must travel to Bremen and Calhoun Tuesday and Thursday before hosting Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe next Friday, April 20.
