Calhoun’s bats silenced in region loss to Adairsville
The relentless wind gusts made for chilly weather conditions on Thursday evening, but Calhoun’s bats proved to be just as cold in a 6-0 loss to the Adairsville Tigers in the last home contest of the regular season.
The Jackets’ (18-9, 11-6 in 6-AAA) lineup couldn’t seem to solve Tigers’ starting pitcher Kyler Pelfrey, and failed to get into any sort of groove at the dish, mustering only three hits (all singles) over seven innings. Pelfrey submitted a strong completegame outing on the hill for Adairsville (19-8, 12-5 in 6-AAA) and snagged the win, striking out seven and surrendering no walks.
“Pelfrey is a competitor, and he went out there and knew what he had to do to keep us off the bases,” Calhoun head coach Chip Henderson said. “He threw strikes and challenged us, and it seemed like he was often ahead in the count, which kept us from getting anything going tonight.”
Despite the final tally on the scoreboard, the early frames of the game looked the part of an evenly-matched pitching duel. Davis Allen received the start on the mound for Calhoun and was mostly effective over 4 2-3 innings, often wiggling out of volatile situations by using his velocity to compile nine strikeouts and allow only three hits. However, Allen’s undoing was his shaky control, permitting five walks.
The Tigers managed to scratch across two runs during Allen’s tenure toeing the rubber, both unearned. In the third inning, Hunter Hice reached third base on an outfield miscue and crossed home on an errant pitch that skipped to the back stop. Garrett Mishoe put Adairsville on the board again in the fifth by roping an RBIdouble to bring in Pelfrey, who was allowed on base due to an infield error.
“I thought Davis battled and made some good pitches in tough spots, but we didn’t do a good enough job working ahead in the count,” Henderson said. “We struggled with some miscues out in the field, and a team with productive hitters like Adairsville will capitalize on that.”
After Allen’s pitch count eclipsed 100 pitches, he was relieved by Brady Drummond with two outs in the fifth. Drummond managed to escape the fifth unscathed, but ran into a bit of trouble when the game started to unravel in the following inning.
The Tigers built upon its 2-0 advantage in the sixth, with Hice causing more damage with a twoRBI single, followed by Mishoe tacking on anoth- er pair of runs by squaring up an RBI-single and scoring himself on a wild pitch to increase the gap to six runs and cement the victory. Drummond did strike out three batters over 2 1-3 innings.
Calhoun offered resistance in the third with a Ben King base hit, and a rally was almost sparked with a single by Ethan Crump and bunt single by Payton Morrow in the sixth, but the team couldn’t string enough offensive production together to dent the Adairsville lead.
“When you only get three hits, you aren’t going to be in a position to win many games,” Henderson said. “Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the opposing pitcher for keeping hitters off balance at the plate. But defensively, we gave them too many extra outs and that is something you absolutely can’t do against good teams.”
After Calhoun’s 3-0 victory over Haralson County to wrap up the regular season and region schedule on Friday, the Jackets earned the No. 3 seed from 6-AAA for the Class AAA State Tournament. They will open play in the first round on Thursday against Region 5-AAA No. 2 seed Lovett with a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. If a Game 3 is necessary to decide the series, it will be played on Friday at Lovett at 6 p.m.