Hurricanes blank Kennesaw Mountain; Woodland, Adairsville, Cass fall in Toyo tourney openers
On the opening night of the 2019 Toyo Tires Battle for Bartow Baseball Classic at the LakePoint Sporting Community Friday, only one of the four local teams escaped with a first round win. Cartersville pitchers Mason Barnett and Gage Morris combined to shutout Kennesaw Mountain 3-0, but the other three Bartow County teams — Adairsville, Cass, and Woodland — all came up short. Woodland was edged by Cedartown 2-1. Adairsville fell to Bremen 8-4 and Cass lost to Pepperell, 5-1. All eight teams will play two more games on Saturday.
Cass will face Kennesaw Mountain in a consolation semifinal at 10 a.m. Woodland and Adairsville willl square off in the other 10 a.m. consolation semifinal. At 12:15 p.m., the championship semifinals will feature Cartersville against Pepperell while Bremen will play Cedartown.
The consolation semifinal losers will play at 3 p.m. and the championship semifinal losers will also play for third place at 3 p.m.
The 5:30 p.m. games will be the fifth place game between the consolation semifinal winners and of course the championship game between the two championship bracket semifinal winners.
In Cartersville’s win Friday night, Barnett started on the bump and went five shutout innings. He allowed only two hits and a pair of walks while fanning eight. Morris entered in the sixth inning and finished off the shutout allowing only one hit with no walks. Morris recorded two strikeouts.
Playing as the home team, Cartersville scored a single run in the bottom of the second on a solo home run by J.P. Martin and added their two other tallies in the bottom of the fifth with only one hit. Two hit batsmen and a single by Josh Davis made the score 2-0 and a bases loaded walk by Brant Smith forced home the Canes’ final run.
Preston Welchel had Cartersville’s only other hit in the game. It came in the fourth inning. The win improved the Canes’ season record to 4-1. Kennesaw Mountain slips to 4-2-1. CEDARTOWN 2, WOODLAND 1 Peyton Posey and Phoenix Cramer combined to limit Cedartown to only two runs on six hits, but Dalton Bowman and Carson Shelton only allowed a single run to the Wildcats as the Bulldogs edged Woodland 2-1. Griffin Elder doubled and tripled to lead Cedartown at the plate. He also drove in one of the Bulldogs’ runs. Jerry Simmons had two hits including a triple. Bowman homered in the fourth for the other Cedartown run. Toby Queen had two of Woodland’s four hits. Koby Stansell and Fisher Davis had the other Wildcats’ hits. Posey gave Woodland a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second with a sacrifice fly that scored Scotty Smith. Cedartown improved to 4-1 and plays Bremen in the semifinals Saturday at 12:15 p.m. Woodland (2-3) plays a consolation semifinal Saturday morning at 10 a.m. against Adairsville.
PEPPERELL 5, CASS 1
Cass held a 1-0 lead early Friday night, but Pepperell scored five unanswered runs from the third inning forward to beat the Colonels 5-1 in both teams’ opening game of the Toyo Tires Battle for Bartow Baseball Classic.
Mason Fincher and Dakota Corntassel kept the Colonels’ bats silenced for the most part. The two Dragons’ pitchers scattered five hits and two walks and struck out nine.
Blaine Ingram (4.2 IP, 3R, 2ER, 4H, 6BB, 6K) suffered the pitching loss for Cass. Matt Shook (2.1 IP, 2R, 1ER, 4H, 1BB, 2K) took the mound in relief for the Colonels. Chase Gresham had two hits and one RBI for Pepperell. Wesley Wade had a hit and one RBI. Five other Dragons added one hit each.
Ingram was 3-for-3 at the plate for Cass including a triple. Matt Shook and Hunter Lee had the other Colonels’ hits. Thomas Botts drove in the Cass run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning.
Pepperell improved to 1-3 on the young season and will play Cartersville in one of the championship semifinal games Saturday at 12:15 p.m. at LakePoint.
Cass (3-3) plays a consolation semifinal against Kennesaw Mountain Saturday morning at 10 a.m.
BREMEN 8, ADAIRSVILLE 4 Bremen scored five runs in the top of the sixth to break open a 1-1 contest on their way to an 8-4 victory in both teams’ opening game of the Toyo Tires Battle for Bartow Baseball Classic at LakePoint. The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and it stayed that way until Bremen posted a single run in the fourth to knot the score 1-1. The Blue Devils sixth inning rally was aided by five walks from Adairsville pitchers, a balk, and an error. Bremen had only one hit in the inning. Bremen added two more runs in the top of the seventh to take an 8-1 advantage and then held off Adairsville who was actually able to send a potential game-tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh. Blue Devils’ starter Griffin Cook went three innings on the mound to earn credit for the pitching win. Ben Barrow and Brant Ivey worked in relief. Adairsville utilized four pitchers with Braden Powell (1.2 IP, 4ER, 2H, 4BB, 2K) taking the loss in relief of starter Levi Blackwell (3.1 IP, 1R, 0ER, 4H, 2BB, 2K). Landon Ayers (0.0 IP, 1R, 0ER, 2BB) and B.J. Roper (1.1 IP, 2R, 0ER, 1K) also pitched for the Tigers. Brooks Hardie and Carson Cook combined for four hits and three RBI to pace the Bremen offense. Six different Tigers had one hit each with Trace Still and Ayers combining to drive in three runs. Bremen (6-2) plays Cedartown Saturday in one of the two championship bracket semifinals at 12:15 p.m. Adairsville (0-3) squares off with Woodland in a consolation semifinal Saturday morning at 10 a.m.
Saturday's updated bracket:
