Canes top Titans in battle of Class AAAAA's two top-ranked teams

A one-out RBI double by Jake Brasfield drove home courtesy runner Paul Gamble in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday night to break a 2-2 tie and lift 2nd-ranked Cartersville to a 3-2 win over top-ranked Blessed Trinity at Richard Bell Field.

The late RBI ended four and one-half innings of scoreless baseball after both teams struck for two runs in the first inning.

A leadoff single, RBI double, and two-out single gave the visiting Titans an early 2-0 lead off Canes’ starter Micah Earwood.

Cartersville answered with the combination of three singles and a dropped third strike wild pitch to even the score at 2-2 off Titans’ starter D.J. Radtke. Curt Bonner, Blake Sutton, and Brasfield had the base hits for Cartersville. Parker McPherson reached and made second base on a missed third strike and wild pitch. The play enabled Bonner to score. McPherson later crossed the plate on the hit by Brasfield.

The middle innings belong to the two starting pitchers.

Earwood scattered three hits and a walk with nine strikeouts over the next five frames. Radtke also struck out nine and walked one between the second and the bottom of the sixth inning. Joseph Chambers retired the final two outs in the sixth for the Titans.

Davis Williams pitched a scoreless top of the seventh for the Hurricanes and earned his second save of the year. He walked two and struck out one in the final frame.

Cartersville improved to 14-5 for the season and 9-1 in Region 7-AAAAA.

Radtke, who suffered the pitching loss, was one of three Titans to finish with two hits each. Hayden Grier and Ben Hamacher contributed two hits each. Max Puckett had one hit for Blessed Trinity (12-7, 6-2).

The Region 7-AAAAA three-game series now moves to Roswell for a doubleheader Thursday starting at 5 p.m.