Jackets set for big twinbill with ‘Canes

The Calhoun High School baseball team will attempt to move up in the Region 7-5A standings Thursday when the Yellow Jackets host Cartersville in a crucial league double-header.

The Purple Hurricanes began this week leading the Region with a 6-1 record after taking two-of-three from Blessed Trinity as right now, those three ballclubs are the ones duke-ing it out for the region championship.

The Jackets, who are 5-2 in the Region after winning two of three last week against Cass with a sweep of their doubleheader Friday night in Cartersville, began this week in third place behind the Canes, and Blessed Trinity, which is 7-2.

“We still control our own destiny, “Calhoun head baseball coach Beau Edwards said. “But we need to win. So we need to come out Thursday night and play our two best games of the year. Cartersville is tough. They are always tough and obviously, they played us tough the first time we played because they beat us (4-2).

“But for us, I think we just have to hit the baseball. In the games we have lost, we haven’t done that. In the games we have won, in just about all of them, we have hit well. So we need to make sure we bring our bats against Cartersville.”

He said offensively, the Yellow Jackets are still searching for that happy medium.

“For us, at the plate, it’s been all-ornothing,” Edwards said. “In most of the games we’ve won, we’ve had lots of hits and scored lots of runs. And in the games we’ve lost, we’ve scored what, seven, eight runs total.

“So we need offensively to find that middle ground, that consistency where we’re scoring runs every game and not getting shut down one day and then scoring over 20 the next times we play.”

He was referring specifically to the three-game Cass series last week when the Yellow Jackets got shut out 2-0 in game One Tuesday, but then came back on Friday to sweep a doubleheader from the Colonels, winning the first game 9-6 in extra innings and then taking a 15-0 drubbing in Game Two.

“We pitched well in all three games, although they got us with some runs in that first game on Friday, but the real big difference was simply we swung the bats on Friday and we didn’t swing them well at all on Tuesday, “Edwards said.

In that first game against Cass, the Colonels scored a pair of solo runs in different innings and made it stand up in a 2-0 win over Calhoun.

“That was by far our worst offensive game this year,” Edwards said. “But you’ve got to give to their pitcher credit because he battled. But we were popping everything up and just couldn’t get anything going with the sticks.”

He said they also wasted an excellent pitching performance by first freshman Jax Bishop and then junior reliever Brooks Crawford.

Bishop struck out 15 batters in six innings and Crawford K’d two of the three hitters he faced. In other words, 17 of Cass’s total 21 outs were by punch-out, but the Jackets still lost

“Both our guys threw very well,” Edwards said. “Jax had 15 strikeouts. He had zero walks.. Brooks came on and got two (strikeouts) in one inning. They only

gave up two runs. You can’t really ask much more from them than the job they did.”

They seemed to be deep in trouble in first game on Friday before senior Kris Sutton came up with not one, but two hits to reverse his team’s fortunes.

First, in the top of the seventh he had the hit that tied the game up to send it to an eighth inning.

Then in the eighth, he had the game-winning knock with a bases-loaded double that plated Jake Slaughter and Bishop and produced a five-run inning that elevated them to the win.

“When we were down in that seventh inning, Kris was walking around the dugout saying, ‘just get me to the plate, just get me to the plate,’ and we were able to get him to the plate and he came through for us,” Edwards said. “He came through in a big way for us. And that was good to see because I think we needed that as a team. We needed someone to step up and get a big hit for us in a big spot because it had been a while and Kris did exactly that.”

Freshman Avery Shiflett pitched the first four innings and senior Jake Slaughter went the next four to get the victory.

Shiflett had six strikeouts, but walked four in dealing with what appeared to be a tight strike zone. He gave up four runs.

Slaughter allowed two runs and had six strikeouts in the game.

Rejuvenated and jacked up from the win they had about 30 minutes earlier, the Yellow Jackets had a no-hitter and cruised in the second game, needing only four innings to beat the Colonels.

They scored six in the top of the first inning and then added seven more in the top of the third to win going away.

Junior Cooper Evans, who was the starting and winning pitcher, helped his own cause offensively, by going 2-for3 with three RBI. Slaughter was one of many who also had a good day at the plate, going 2-for-4 with three RBI himself.

Evans was the winning pitcher and allowed three walks for Cass’s only three baserunners the entire game. Crawford came on in relief in the fourth and final frame and again struck out two of the three hitters he faced.

“I think (Cass) may have been out of pitching, but we played really well, “Edwards said. “We had a lot of guys get hits. Cooper and Brooks threw the ball very well. We were only three walks away from a perfect game. But the guys played very well and it was just the kind of win we needed. Now hopefully we can put together a few good ball games this week.”

They are back to crazy-busy to end this week, starting with a trip to Rome Wednesday to play the Wolves with the first pitch scheduled for 5:55 p.m.

Then on Thursday, they have their all-important doubleheader with Cartersville in a pair of region games at Chip Henderson Field with Game One slated for 4 p.m. With a couple of wins, provided what happens to Blessed Trinity this week, the Jackets could find themselves in first place come this weekend.

And Friday, the Yellow Jackets are back on the bus with the trip to Zebulon to play Pike County in another non-region game.

“I just want to see us continue to compete, “Edwards said. “We have four big games coming up in a real short amount of time so we’ve got to be ready. And we’ve got these two games with Cartersville, which is really where our focus will be because those are the two that we really need to win.

“But we’ll adjust out pitching accordingly because while there’s a chance we’ll use a number of different (pitchers). The main thing is to make sure the guys we want to use against Cartersville are available and ready to go. But there’s no question the end of this week will be a real challenge, but when we hit the baseball and play like we can, I know we can play with anyone and I always like our chances. “

Calhoun is now 15-4 on the year.