Jackets close season with 3 versus Dalton
The Calhoun High School baseball team ends the regular season this coming week with three Region 7-5A games against Dalton.
The Yellow Jackets entered the week fighting for their playoff lives after playing Woodland three times last week and it appears a couple of wins over the Catamounts is the tonic they need to take to make the playoffs once again.
Woodland got the upper hand on the Yellow Jackets in the Region standings by winning Game One of the series Monday night, 4-3, in nine innings. The game was originally set to be played Tuesday night, but was moved up 24 hours to avoid Tuesday's rain. The teams were then scheduled to play Thursday night at Woodland and back at home Calhoun Friday night to close out their meetings this season. (Details of those games were not available at press time).
Dalton, on the other hand, was off from Region games last week, playing Soddy Daisy three times and for the Catamounts, it's pretty simple. They enter this week 1-8 in the Region and must beat Calhoun to have any chance to reach the postseason. On the other hand, the Jackets can make it all a moot point by winning at least two of the three games.
In that loss to Woodland on Monday, the Yellow Jackets battled the Warriors hammer-and-tong for nine innings with the game stopped for a little while after the seventh inning when the lights behind the first base line went out and the city had to called in to turn them back on so play could resume and the teams could finish.
They were tied at three after seven innings when one side of the field went dark. But once they were able to get started again the ballclubs played a scoreless eighth before the Wildcats pushed the go-ahead run across in
the top of the ninth and made it stand when they set Calhoun down in order in the bottom half.
The win lifted the Wildcats to 3-4 in the standings and a full game ahead of Yellow Jackets, who fell to fourth in the five-team Region at 2-5.
Woodland got on the board first, scoring two runs in the top of the third inning to take a 2-0 lead.
Calhoun got one of those back in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead in half at 2-1.
In the top of the sixth, Woodland notched a solo run to push the lead back to two runs before the Yellow Jackets came up with two clutch runs to tie the game at three.
Neither team was able to score in the seventh inning and then half the field went dark, stopping play and leaving a lot of people wondering what happened and if they were going to be able to finish with the game already a rescheduled one.
But they were able to finish and that meant the Yellow Jackets needed to win on Thursday or Friday to try and
keep pace with the Wildcats and stay ahead of the Catamounts.
Last week, the Yellow Jackets were away from Region 7-5A action and lost three games Thursday and Friday at the Lakepoint Sports Complex in Cartersville.
They began play Thursday against Whitewater with a 12-8 loss to the Wildcats.
The Jackets came back on Friday and fell twice in a pair of non-league games, falling to Etowah 18-3 and then losing to Newton 15-0 in four innings what is supposed to be their final non-Region game of the year.
The Rams scored runs in all four innings to defeat Calhoun, nabbing five runs in the first, one in the second, three in the third and then six in the fourth to end it early due to the mercy rule.
Cartersville went into the end of last week still untouched in Region 7-5A play, owning a 9-0 record and the Purple Hurricanes will look to put
the finishing touches on another Region championship and top seed going into the playoffs when they played second-place Cass three times starting Thursday night when they had a doubleheader at Cass. The teams then wrapped up their three-game set Friday night with a single game and with one victory over the Colonels, the `Canes can clinch the Region title while Cass must beat them three times to have any chance at getting to the top.
Cass stood 4-2 in the Region going into that series and the Colonels still have a three-game set with Woodland to play this week in what could be a battle for the second spot in the Region depending on how the Colonels and Wildcats finished out their games Thursday and Friday.
Calhoun is scheduled to begin its season-ending series with Dalton Monday at Chip Henderson Field. The teams then travel to Dalton Wednesday for Game Two and the
Yellow Jackets return hone Thursday, April 18 in the finale with the Catamounts. All three games are scheduled to start at 5:55 p.m.
Calhoun is now 6-17 on the year and the Jackets were 2-5 in Region after that loss to Woodland Monday evening.