EARLY WORKOUT
♦ Cedartown, Rockmart find mix results in earlyseason tournaments
Varsity baseball players across the county took the road last week to take on some early-season challenges at tournaments near and far with mixed results.
Cedartown started the week with an 8-3 win at home over Class 6A North Atlanta before playing in the Georgia Dugout Club Tournament at LakePoint Sports Complex over the weekend and going 1-2.
Rockmart went 1-2 last week as the Jackets fell to Vidalia on the road as a precursor to a tournament in Brunswick on Saturday where they split their two games.
The Bulldogs played their home opener Monday, Feb. 20, in an afternoon affair with North Atlanta and used a three-run third and a four-run fifth to seal the win.
Eli Barrow hit a two-run home run, Reece Tanner had two RBIs and Dylan Cupp had an RBI double. Senior pitcher Britt Baxter pitched six innings and left with an 8-1 lead. He finished with three hits, five walks and three strikeouts. Xavier Holiday threw the last inning.
Cedartown (4-2) began the Georgia Dugout Club Tournament on Friday against 6A North Forsyth and suffered its first defeat of the season with a final score of 8-1.
The Bulldogs regrouped the next day and started a gloomy, misty day with a 6-1 win over East Paulding, another 6A school.
Baxter started the game on the mound and threw five innings, allowing no runs and one walk while striking out two. Barrow led the team at the plate by going 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
Cole Dingler went 2-for-3 with an RBI, a walk and a run scored. Tony Ware was 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Cupp finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored.
Cedartown would come up against a tough Walton team in the nightcap of the Saturday twin bill and fall 12-2 to the 7A squad.
Rockmart (3-3) began a three-day road trip with a game at Vidalia High School on Thursday, Feb. 23, and lost to the AA school 6-5 on a walk-off. Trey Luke had two hits and an RBI in the contest, while Hunter Atkins had two hits.
Playing at the tournament in Brunswick on Saturday, the Jackets held on against Class 7A Milton and won 6-4.
Nolan Clemons had two hits, Jake Bailey and Rob Yagyu finished with two RBIs each, and Atkins got the win with four strikeouts in four innings of work. Rockmart led 6-2 going into the top of seventh with Milton pushed across two runs before the Jackets could seal the win.
The weekend ended for Rockmart with a 10-0 loss to 5A Locust Grove.
Rockmart and Cedartown are scheduled to play their annual home-and-home rivalry series this week, with Game 1 at Cedartown on Wednesday. First pitch is at 5:55 p.m. Game 2 is Saturday at Rockmart at 2 p.m.
Both teams will get another non-region game in between the cross-county
contests. Cedartown will host Pepperell on Friday at 5:30 p.m. while Rockmart welcomes Jeff Davis to The Rock on Friday for a 7 p.m. first pitch.