GENERALS
sharp on the mound and appeared to be on the way to a possible complete-game victory when Ghsa-mandated pitch count caught up to him.
It looked as though Letzgus would have enough pitches remaining to possibly close out the seventh inning and the game, but the Falcons would get a single, a sacrifice bunt and a walk to bring Jake Beaver to the plate. Beaver would foul off seven straight pitches after a 1-1 count before working Letzgus for a walk to load the bases. The extra pitches that Beaver was able to foul off would finally signal the end of the line for the Heritage ace.
Dakota Bandy replaced Letzgus on the mound and got a strikeout for the second out. However, Andrew Armstrong would tie the game with a clutch Rbi-single before a two-run single by Kaleb Freeman put the Falcons in front for good.
“That was a tough part of the game,” Beagles said of Beaver’s lengthy at-bat. “We thought (Letzgus) going to be ok and he really had more fuel in the tank, but that kid just had an incredible at-bat and kept fouling pitches off. It was just one of those things.”
Caden Snyder had a double and Nick Hanson had a single to account for the other two hits for the Generals. Letzgus gave up three earned runs on four hits with five walks and 11 strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work. Game 2, Flowery Branch got two runs in the bottom of the first, a solo run in the second and four more in the fourth, two courtesy of a homerun by Armstrong, and they would never look back.
Armstrong went six innings for the Falcons. The lefty surrendered just one hit and two walks and finished with seven strikeouts.
Snyder and Walker Spruiell had singles for Heritage, while Kiniry took the loss. He pitched three innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts.
Hanson gave up three earned runs on four hits with one strikeout in two innings of relief, while Alex Mixon fanned one batter as he worked the final inning.
“We knew it would be a tough road to hoe against two lefties like that,” Beagles said. “Their record was a little misleading. Someone asked me how a team with two pitchers like that could only be a No. 3 seed. Well, that can happen when you’re playing (region rivals) Blessed Trinity and Marist a couple of times a week. It’s a great region they are in and they benefitted from that today.”
Heritage finished the year with a 17-15 overall record and Beagles said that while this year’s seniors would be greatly missed, he hoped that his club’s younger players would use this season as a springboard for 2020.
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth out of this team this season and we’ve learned a lot,” he explained. “We had a lot of learning experiences this year and now the goal is to take those (experiences), learn from those lessons and build on that.”