Jackets hit rough patches

Rockmart falls to 2-3 in early-season play.

The Rockmart Yellow Jackets have been washed out, rescheduled and on the road during the early baseball season.

Five games into the season, Rockmart is sitting at 2-3 and have faced down some hard tests, but the first come up this Tuesday is against their arch-rival right at home.

It came after Rockmart first traveled back to Bartow County for a win over Woodland, and a three-game home stand over the weekend with the Jackets going 1-2 against teams traveling from afar.

Rockmart’s 4-3 win over the Wildcats on Feb. 20 was followed upon by a Friday loss to visiting Thomasville in a 1-0 fight to the finish.

The Bulldogs grabbed a run in the second and kept the Jackets from scoring through five innings to close out the night.

Saturday saw Rockmart bounce back, taking a 6- 2 win over Heard County in the first of two games of the day. They couldn’t follow-up the success of the morning in a late evening matchup against visiting Rabun County in a 2-1 loss.

The Jackets took an early 1 run lead in the bottom of the second, but Rabun bounced back in the top of the seventh and put two runs and closed out Rockmart in the bottom half of the final inning.

A busy week is ahead for the Jackets, who open the week at home against Cedartown on Tuesday after press time, followed by Cass on Thursday and then take a trip Friday to Harrison.

Region play will get underway starting on March 6 against Model at home.

Kevin Myrick / SJ Rockmart’s Evan Ratcliff knocks a base hit into the outfield during action this week.

Kevin Myrick / SJ Griffin Pace provided pitching during the first half of Rockmart’s game against Heard County.

ABOVE: Cody Parramore was helped off the field by coaches and trainers after taking a hard slide back into first base trying to avoid being thrown out, which dislocated his left shoulder. ()

Photos by Kevin Myrick, Standard Journal LEFT: CJ Culver crosses home plate for a run after scoring from third on a sacrifice fly from Kole Holder.