Bring it around
Darlington and Coosa get region wins at the Rome Braves’ home ballpark.
Local high school teams take in games at State Mutual Stadium.
Before the boys of summer return to State Mutual Stadium, the minor league ballpark’s turf got a preseason workout from some of the area’s high school teams.
A full schedule of four prep baseball games was held at the home of the Rome Braves on Saturday as part of the 2018 Rome Braves Invitational.
Coosa rolled to a 12-0 win over Model to start the day, as the Eagles run-ruled their fellow Region 7-AA foe after 5 innings. Pepperell came up short to a stingy Cartersville squad, 6-0, and Darlington pulled out a 2-1 win over North Cobb Christian in a Region 6-A/A tilt.
Armuchee and Rome battled into the night in the final game, with the Wolves picking up a 12-0 win in five innings to bookend the day’s contests. Details of the Rome-Armuchee game were unavailable at press time.
Darlington’s close win ended a week where the Tigers went 3-0 against subregion opponents. Head coach Matt Larry said it came down to each player doing their job.
“They knew what was ahead of them in all three games and our guys stepped up and did their job,” Larry said. “Today we proved that if we just do the little things we’ll be fine.”
The game came down to Darlington’s final at-bat in the bottom of the seventh when Trey Yunger stayed patient on a 3-1 count with the bases loaded and drew a walk, scoring Austin Cloud and breaking the 1-1 tie.
It marked a somewhat anticlimactic end to a battle between the two teams. Darlington’s Lawson Brown threw a complete game, with the freshman scattering four hits, striking out three and walking one.
North Cobb Christian’s Ronny Piepmeier made the Tigers work for each at-bat, going the distance and striking out 10.
“They are a heck of a team,” Larry said. “Their pitcher is one of the best we’ll face, and I felt like our guys went in there and fought right along with him.”
Austin Cloud went 2 for 3 with a run scored, while Cam Watson finished 2 for 3 as well for the Tigers (8-8, 5-1 6-A/ A).
Yunger scored in the third on a fielder’s choice brought on by a dropped ball on strike three. North Cobb Christian (12-5, 5-4) evened the score in the fifth.
Austin Cloud drew a four-pitch walk to start the bottom of the seventh and was moved up to third on a single by Cam Watson that split the gap in right field.
With no outs, North Cobb decided to intentionally walk Aiden Cloud and Adam Himes struck out before Yunger stepped up for what would become the decisive plate appearance.
Here’s a look at Saturday’s other games:
Coosa 12, Model 0, 5 inn.
Feeding off of some timely mistakes from Model, Coosa managed to open the game with a 9-0 first inning and then added three more in the fourth to set the 12-0 final.
Glenn Nicholson pitched all five innings for Coosa (8-7, 5-2 7-AA) as the senior allowed just two hits and struck out two. Dastyn Trapp had two RBIs for the Eagles, while Seth Crowe and Nicholson had one each.
Model’s Rett Edwards struck out two in 2 2/3 innings of work for the Blue Devils, who are 1-15 and 0-7 in the region.
Cartersville 6, Pepperell 0
Pepperell had five hits and couldn’t string enough of them together to avoid a 6-0 loss to the Class 4A Purple Hurricanes.
The Dragons’ biggest opportunity came in the fifth inning after Mateo Garcia started off reaching first on an error.
Mason Fincher got a base hit to right and Chase Gresham put the ball into
the gap in right center to load the bases with no outs. Garcia was thrown out at home after Trevor Thomas got a piece of the ball to hit it back to the mound. Darian Pasley then struck out and Thomas was put out at second on a hit by Wesley Wade to end the inning.
Hunter Young went the distance on the mound for the Dragons, who are 7-9 overall and visit Coosa on Tuesday.