Generals maintain hold on second place in 6-AAAA
The Heritage Generals had a fivegame win streak snapped last week, but they bounced back and won three straight games to stay in the running of another Region 6-AAAA title.
The Navy-and-Red took two of three from the Pickens Dragons to improve to 9-3 in region play. Heritage currently sits in second place in the region standings with six games remaining.
Pickens 2, Heritage 1
After scoring at least 10 runs in each of their previous three games, the Generals lost a pitchers’ duel to the Dragons.
Pickens pitcher Travis Huffman picked up the win after striking out seven batters and giving up one earned run in seven innings.
Alex Barbee almost matched Huffman with seven strikeouts and two earned runs in six innings, but took the loss.
Heritage finished with seven hits, three from Joseph Hill. Cole Wilcox had the lone RBI for the Generals.
Heritage 13, Pickens 3
The Generals responded in a big way on Thursday, run-ruling the Dragons in five innings.
Pickens took an early 2-0 lead, but Heritage exploded for five runs in each of the first two innings and was never threatened again.
Johnathan Hickman ignited the offense by going 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs. Lance Dockery was 3-for-4 with one RBI, Wilcox went 2-for2 with two RBIs and Brody Campbell added a hit. That quartet also scored nine runs between them.
A 13-hit night was plenty of support for winning pitcher Tripp Church, who struck out six and gave up three earned runs in five innings.
Heritage 9, Pickens 1
The Generals won the series on Friday with another huge offensive performance.
Heritage scored five runs in the third inning, and tacked on three more runs in the fifth to cement the victory.
Hickman went 2-for3, Luke Grant went 2-for3 with two RBIs, Blake Bryan went 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Campbell went for 1-for-1 with an RBI.
Wilcox accomplished a complete game. He gave up just two hits, struck out six and allowed just one earned run.
Playing a nonregion game at Signal Mountain on Saturday, the Generals allowed just two hits and had 12 of their own in the rout.
Grant had a two-run homer. Hill went 4-for5 with a double and three RBIs. Campbell knocked in two runs. Bryan went 2-for-4 and Bryce Bird swatted a solo homerun to help Dakota Bandy pick up the win.
Bandy went the distance in the fiveinning game. The run he allowed was unearned.
Dakota Bandy was able to muster up a complete game, allowing no earned runs and giving up just the two hits in five innings’ of work.
Heritage (18-6 overall) will face Gilmer in a three-game series this week. They will open at Gilmer on Tuesday before returning home to take on the Bobcats on Thursday. The series will conclude on Friday in Ellijay. First pitch is set for 5:30 p.m. for all three games.