8 Jackets named AllRegion in baseball
The Calhoun High School baseball team had eight players — including seven underclassmen — receive 7-5A All-Region recognition when the 2023 elite team was recently announced.
Cartersville, which dominated the league with a perfect 15-0 record and reached the 5A Elite 8 state playoffs for the 24th time in the past 27 years, dominated the Region first team with five players on it. The Purple Hurricanes, who were the top-ranked 5A team in the state for most of this past season, finished 32-4 on the season.
In all, Calhoun would finish with two players on the All-Region first team, four on the second team, and two more received honorable mention.
Graduated senior pitcher Cooper Evans and junior shortstop Andrew Purdy were the two Yellow Jacket players named to the Region 7-5A first team.
Junior utility player Ripken West, senior outfielder Cohen Chadwick, junior pitcher Jax Bishop, and sophomore pitcher Spencer Evans were named to the All-Region second team at their respective positions.
Senior outfielder Isaac Green and senior catcher Luke Sims were the pair of players who received honorable mention.
Cooper Evans was one of just two seniors on the team this past year for Calhoun and he was a starting pitcher and an infielder when he wasn’t on the mound. He threw a complete-game nohitter this past season against Hiram in a game in which he also had a big day at the plate. Besides his work as a starter, Evans also made a couple of relief appearances for his team and is a two-year starter for the Yellow Jackets.
Purdy led the team in home runs and had a couple of multi-homer games, including a grand slam and then a solo blast later in an 8-0 win over Cass during the Region 7-5A schedule at Chip Henderson Field.
As for the four Calhoun players to
make second team All-Region, one was a junior, but two of them were sophomores and the other was a freshman this spring, meaning all of them will be back next year.
West was one of a number of sophomores who made major contributions this past season for the Yellow Jackets, playing a number of different positions. In the team’s first game of the year against Cedartown, he came on in relief and besides making a few more appearances out of the bullpen, he also played a couple of different spots in the field and he was a backup catcher.
Bishop is a pitcher who has now been part of the Yellow Jackets’ starting rotation for the past two seasons. He is a right-hander who has generated interest from college scouts because of his power arm.
Spencer Evans, who is Cooper’s younger brother, was one of the few freshman to garner All-Region honors after an outstanding rookie varsity season. He was a pitcher, both as a starter and reliever, for the Yellow Jackets and also played first base.
Chadwick was not in the starting lineup on that opening night against Cedartown, but had an excellent campaign and was a real force in
the team’s lineup by season’s end. And like so many of his teammates, he was very versatile, playing in the outfield and at first base.
Green and Sims will both be back next year after excellent junior years.
Green, who got off to a late start because he was wrestling and would finish second in the state in his weight class in February, was the team’s leadoff hitter by the end of the year.
Sims was another guy whose name was not on the lineup card on the first night of the season back in February, but he was the starter by mid-season and played very steady behind the plate for the Yellow Jackets.
Calhoun was 10-21 this season and lost in the first round of the GHSA 5A state playoffs when they dropped a best-of-three series to Winder-Barrow near Athens with 7-4 and 3-0 losses.