Bulldogs finish runners-up at Bartow tournament
In a weekend Battle for Bartow Classic at LakePoint Sporting Community, the Cedartown Bulldogs defeated the Bremen Blue Devils 11-6 in the second round.
For the two squads, this was their second meeting of the season in a week’s time, with Bremen winning a 5-3 contest on Feb. 26.
Despite allowing Bremen to score first, Cedartown’s offense bounced back in the second inning. Thanks to RBI hits by Cade Dingler and Jerry Simmons, the Bulldogs put two on the scoreboard as Jacob Bradshaw and Brycen Cheatwood crossed home plate. Already leading 2-1, Cedartown brought across 5 runs in the top of the third, as Bradshaw, Cheatwood, MJ Holiday, Taji Hudson, and Corbin Cuzzort scored. This gave CHS a 7-1 advantage through two-and-a-half.
The Blue Devils responded, and added two runs in the bottom of the third and three in the fourth to cut to within one run. Fortunately for Cedartown, that was as close as Bremen got. A big top of the fifth in which Bradshaw, Hudson, Easton Oxenrider, and Zane Barrow came around to score provided enough cushion to ensure a Bulldog triumph. With the win, Cedartown improved to 5-1 on the year so far.
This was the best offensive output so far on the year for Coach Gevin Johnson’s Bulldogs. Multiple Cedartown players had impressive games at the plate. Jerry Simmons went 1-2 with 2 RBI. Tyler Gosdin also batted in two runs on a 1-4 day.
Jacob Bradshaw scored three times against Bremen, and a 3-4 game for Brycen Cheatwood set the senior up with two singles, one double, and two runs. Finally, Cade Dingler was 2-4 with a double and a triple with 1 RBI, and Corben Cuzzort went 1-4 with 1 RBI.
The win over the Blue Devils advanced the Bulldogs to the Championship Game of the Battle for Bartow Classic, setting up a battle between bitter region rivals in Cedartown and Cartersville.
Early defensive struggles for Cedartown shot down their chances to win the Saturday evening championship against Cartersville. An early 7-run deficit for the Bulldogs was too much to overcome in the 9-4 loss.
Cartersville opened scoring on a solo-homerun by South Alabama commit Preston Welchel in the second inning. This was followed by a tworun dinger by Brant Smith in the third that extended their lead to 3-0. After dropping a 4-spot in the fourth inning, Cartersville found themselves up 7-0.
The Bulldogs would battle back, though, in the top of the fifth. Taking advantage of walks, hit-by-pitches, and well-timed base hits allowed Michael Walker, Taji Hudson, Cade Dingler, and Easton Oxenrider to cross home plate. This cut the deficit to only 3 runs.
Unfortunately for the Cedartown faithful who made the drive to Emerson, this is as close as the score would be. Good baserunning by the Canes made it a 9-4 game heading into the sixth inning, letting them put the game on ice.
The Cedartown batting lineup struggled for the most part against Cartersville pitching.
Sewanee commit Logan Martin put together a gem, going 5.1 innings with no earned runs and being named the winning pitcher. MJ Holiday, despite getting the loss in his first varsity start, showed some great potential on the mound for the Bulldogs. Camden Jackson additionally did well in relief of the freshman starter. Easton Oxenrider was the sole Bulldog with multiple hits on the day, going 2-3 with a run scored. Dalton Bowman and Cade Smith both had one-hit games against the Canes, with the former batting in one run.
The Bulldogs are now 5-2 on the season following the Battle for Bartow Classic, in which they went 2-1. The Bulldogs finished the runner-ups in the tournament at LakePoint.
Logan Maddox is a correspondent for the Standard Journal.