Jackets open 7-5A play with Cartersville
The Calhoun High School baseball team will open the Region 7-5A schedule this week with a three-game series against Cartersville.
For the last couple of years, the teams have played each other three times in a week span so that clubs wouldn’t see the same pitchers over and over if they played in a roundrobin format with everyone playing everyone else in the same order for three rounds.
Instead, the past couple of years, they played one game every Tuesday and then Friday doubleheaders to get the three games in. But this year, they are changing that up to three games in four days with a game on Tuesday, the second matchup on Thursdays, and then the third game on Fridays.
So this means the Yellow Jackets, under the direction of first-year head coach Matt Montgomery, will open with Cartersville on the road Tuesday before they meet at Chip Henderson Field on Thursday. The clubs will return to Cartersvile Friday for Game 3 and all the games are slated to start at 5:55 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets head into Region play looking to put it all together after a rough start to the season saw them lose six of their first seven games. However, they won two out of three last weekend at the Perfect Game Showcase tournament in Hoover, Alabama and the hope is that showing was the start of all the success to come.
Actually, both the Yellow Jackets and Cartersville were in the PG Showcase field in Alabama with Calhoun in the Blue Division while Cartersville was in the Red. And the Yellow Jackets reached the semifinals of their division after opening play with their first two-game win steak of the season.
However they lost Saturday afternoon
in the semifinals to IMG Academy out of Bradenton, Florida, 6-0, which was their third time to be shutout in three games. IMG got one run in the first inning and then broke it open with a five-spot in the second for their final runs.
Calhoun would finish the contest with three hits.
The Yellow Jackets began the tournament one state over with a 10-3 victory against Mountain Brook High out of Alabama, Birmingham. It was the second most runs they scored in a game this year and snapped a two-game losing streak.
Then last Friday, they edged Trinity Christian Academy, 4-3, defeating the team out of Jacksonville, Florida with a run in the bottom of the seventh.
The Yellow Jackets scored the first runs of the game with two in the bottom of the third and added another in the fourth to take a 3-run advantage.
But the Conquerors rallied with a pair in the fifth and one more in the sixth to tie the game entering the seventh inning.
After they couldn’t push the go-ahead run across in the top half, the Yellow Jackets came up big with the run they needed for the win.
The Yellow Jackets played one of their
last non-Region games of the year when they hosted 7A Cherokee, which plays in Region 5 and began this week with an 11-1 record. (Details of that Calhoun-Cherokee game were not available at press time).
Beyond their two victories in Alabama last week, the Yellow Jackets look like they have been slowly turning the corner the past couple of weeks, going 3-3 in their last six games after they opened season with four losses.
Cartersville, by far, had the best record of anyone in the 7-5A to start this first week of Region games, standing 7-2 on the season. Other than that, a couple of the other teams are at .500 and everyone else is below it.
While the Purple Hurricanes have pitched well early-on, they have had their offensive struggles at times as well, having scored three runs or less in five of their first nine games.
Woodland, which lost to Sonoraville Monday night, 6-3, in the bottom of the eighth inning, is 5-5 and Hiram stands 3-3 with those two teams also starting their league schedule this week.
Cass was 4-5 the middle of last week and were looking to stop a four-game losing streak Friday when they hosted Central.
Dalton entered Region action hoping to find its groove after the Catamounts began the 2023 season with six losses in their first eight games. They started with four straight losses, but have won two of out of their last three.
In other 7-5A action this week, Woodland will play Dalton Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with the Tuesday and Friday games at Dalton while Hiram will open against Cass with the Tuesday and Friday ballgames at Cass.
For Woodland, the loss to Sonoraville Monday was their first two-game skid this year. The Warriors have also had a three-game win streak this season.
Hiram has been up-and-down through the
first three weeks of the season, winning their first three games but then losing their next three to stand .500 after their first six games.
The Hornets were still busy with non-Region to close this past week, having played three games in four days, starting Wednesday when they took on Pebblebrook. They were scheduled to be back on the diamond Friday night and then Saturday before they go to Cass Tuesday.