Chickamauga outlasts Fort Oglethorpe for Honeycutt Series title
It took two games and two extra innings to decide the championship of the 10U Division in the 2021 Rick Honeycutt World Series at the Fort Oglethorpe Recreation Association ballfields this past Wednesday night.
But when the dust finally settled and the lights grew dim, it was the Chickamauga Cannons taking the championship trophy back home to Crawfish Springs.
Chickamauga, who defeated Fort Oglethorpe, 11-6, in the winners’ bracket final early last Sunday evening, jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings in the title tilt. However, Fort Oglethorpe rallied for four runs in the top of the fourth inning and tacked on two in the fifth to eventually score a 6-4 victory and force a winner-take-all rematch for the championship.
The second game would need a pair of extra innings before the Cannons finally pushed across the winning run to claim a 6-5 win.
Catoosa and LaFayette also had teams in the field. Catoosa defeated LaFayette, 4-3, in bracket play before falling to Chickamauga, 7-2.
In the elimination bracket, LaFayette’s tournament ended with a 7-2 loss to Murray County, while Catoosa sent Murray County home with a 6-4 loss. Catoosa’s run would come to an end in their next game, a 12-1 loss to Fort Oglethorpe in the elimination bracket final.
6U Division
The South Cherokee Indians from Canton rallied late on Wednesday for a 20-18 win over the Ooltewah Hustlers in the championship game for their age group.
Ooltewah had eliminated both the Catoosa Elite and the Chickamauga Crushers. The Hustlers slipped past Catoosa, 2-1, early Tuesday night before defeating Chickamauga, 16-9, in the elimination bracket final later that evening.
Catoosa went 1-1 in pool play last Saturday and opened bracket play Sunday morning with an 11-10 win over Ooltewah before falling to the Crushers, 11-2 in the next round.
Dropping to the elimination bracket, the Elite bounced back with a 22-11 victory over the LaFayette Braves before losing in the rematch with the Hustlers.
Chickamauga, who went 2-0 in pool play, met South Cherokee in the winners’
bracket final and fell to the Indians, 8-6, to drop to the elimination bracket where they were defeated by Ooltewah.
LaFayette, the other local team in the age group, saw its tournament come to a close after losing twice in bracket play on Sunday.
8U Division
The Fort Oglethorpe Warriors and the Chickamauga All-Stars were the last remaining local teams that had a shot at winning the division title, but both were eliminated early last Tuesday evening.
The Warriors went 2-0 in pool play, while Chickamauga finished 1-1. Fort Oglethorpe opened bracket play with a 15-0 win over the Ridgeland Panthers before falling 12-4 to the Signal Mountain All-Stars in the winners’ bracket semifinals.
Fort Oglethorpe would bounce back
with a 14-8 elimination bracket win over Harrison to stay alive in the tournament, but fell to Chickamauga, 12-4, in the elimination bracket semifinals.
Meanwhile, Chickamauga opened bracket play on Sunday with a 12-4 win over Harrison before dropping an 11-2 decision to the East Brainerd Elite in their semifinal contest. Chickamauga would respond with a 15-4 victory over the LaFayette Dodgers in a Sunday afternoon elimination game before taking down Fort Oglethorpe in its next game.
East Brainerd then prevented Chickamauga from playing in the title game with a 3-2 win last Tuesday.
Ridgeland, along with the Dodgers and the LaFayette Cubs, were all eliminated on Sunday.
East Brainerd, needing to beat Signal Mountain twice to win the trophy, did just that on Wednesday and did so in impressive fashion with a 14-0, 17-1 sweep.