Cedartown finishes out region with series loss to Cartersville
Their final region game at the Dawg Pound in Cedartown ended up being a tough outing for the Bulldog faithful. Not only did Cedartown lose on Senior Night, but they were swept away by the Cartersville Purple Hurricanes.
Cartersville opened scoring in the second inning of the April 17 game to close out region play. A two-run homerun by Kolby Adams scored Ian Inaba to put the Canes ahead 2-0. In the fifth, Josh Davis came around thanks to a RBI double by South Alabama commit Preston Welchel to extend the lead to 3-0.
Two insurance runs flashed on the scoreboard in the seventh, when a two-run homer by Davis brought home Adams as well. In the end, Cartersville celebrated a 5-0 win. The triumph sealed their 2019 Region 5-4A Championship at Cedartown on Senior Night.
Lee commit Cohen Wilbanks showed a mastery on the mound in his complete game victory. Pitching a full seven innings, the senior allowed only five hits
and recorded 6 strikeouts in the shutout win. On the other hand, Dalton Bowman picked up the region loss on his Senior Night. He went 6.1 innings, allowing 5 runs on 9 hits. He struck out Cartersville batters on five separate occasions.
The April 17 loss to end the regular season came off the heels of a opening series loss to the Hurricanes earlier in the week on April 15.
The Bulldogs were unable to sustain much offensive success in their 9-1 loss to the Hurricanes, plagued with ineffective batting, pitching mistakes, and defensive errors.
After a scoreless first, Cartersville’s JP Martin hit a two-run homer in the second to give the Canes a 2-0 advantage. In the third that would be extended to 5-0 as the hometown team would bat around, scoring Cohen Willbanks, Preston Welchel, and Jordan Wilkie. Then, a fourrun fourth opened the lead to 9-0.
The lone run for Cedartown came across in the top of the fifth, when Jerry Simmons touched home following a wild pitch. The Bulldogs were limited to only three hits all day: a single by Easton Oxenreider and two doubles by Cade Dingler. Senior Auburn commit Mason Barnett was dealing all afternoon, and earned the win on the mound. Tyler Gosdin picked up only his second L of 2019 in the loss.
Cartersville’s defeat of Cedartown paired with LaGrange’s walk-off upset of Troup County sealed the Region 5-4A playoff spots. Cartersville and Troup are the 1 and 2 seeds respectively. LaGrange’s win last night moved them ahead of Cedartown, and they will be the 3 seed.
Therefore, the Bulldogs will be the 4 seed in the playoffs. This means they will take on one of the top teams in the state in the first round, as they will travel to Bogart next week for a best-of-3 series with the North Oconee Titans.
Cedartown is now 14-14 overall and finishes region play 6-6. They had one more regular season game in Polk County against Landmark Christian at home in non-region play.