Generals win series from Cedartown to qualify for state

The Heritage Generals went into last week’s final three-game series, knowing they would likely need at least two wins to secure a spot in the state tournament and that’s exactly what they got.

After a huge home win last Tuesday, the Navy-and-Red earned a road split on Friday and got into the Class AAAA playoffs from always-competitive Region 7.

HERITAGE 6, CEDARTOWN 1

Pitcher Zach Barrett stared down region champion Cedartown and held the Bulldogs to just one unearned run on two hits in a complete-game victory in Game 1 of the series.

Barrett walked two batters and struck out one and helped himself with a huge two-run single in the bottom of the fourth that put the Generals up 4-1. Cedartown grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third, but a two-out, two-run double by Gage Shaver in the bottom of the inning put the home team in front to stay.

Shaver added a sacrifice fly in the fifth before Eli Totherow singled and scored on an error in the sixth to pad the lead.

Brady Chandler, Max Owens and Jonathan Glover each had singles in the win, while Cannon Stafford drew a walk and scored a pair of runs.

CEDARTOWN 7, HERITAGE 6

In Game 2, the first of a doubleheader at Cedartown on Friday, Shaver laced a two-run triple in the top of the third inning to erase what had been a 2-0 deficit. However, the Bulldogs got three runs in the bottom of the third and two more in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-2 lead.

Heritage rallied with two outs in the top of the fifth. Chandler drew a two-out walk and trotted home on a two-run blast by Shaver, giving him four RBIs for the game. A walk and a single then reset the table for Barrett, who came through with an RBI-single before another run crossed the plate on an error.

However, Cedartown retired six of the last seven Heritage hitters, five on strikeouts, to seal the victory.

Barrett went 3 for 4 at the plate, while Owens and J.C. Armour also had hits.

Armour started on the hill and went 4.2 innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits and six walks with five strikeouts. Owens threw 1.1 innings and allowed one hit, while striking out one batter.

HERITAGE 7, CEDARTOWN 6

It took until the very final out of the very final inning of the very final game of the regular season before the Generals punched their ticket to the state playoffs for a seventh consecutive time.

The Bulldogs got a first inning homerun in Game 3, but the Generals rolled up seven unanswered runs over the next six innings.

Owens had a sacrifice fly in the third to tie things up and added an RBI-single in the fifth before Armour drew a walk with the bases loaded later in the inning, upping the lead to 3-1.

Heritage then put up four runs in the top of the seventh to take a seemingly comfortable 7-1 lead. Two errors and a single got things going before Maddox Henry collected an RBI. Another run scored on an error before Totherow and Stafford came through with backto-back RBIs.

But just when it looked as if Heritage could celebrate, Cedartown made one final charge. They loaded the bases before drawing a walk to bring in a run, while back-to-back two-run doubles pulled them to within a run of tying the game.

However, Garrison May got a final flyball out to lock up the victory.

May picked up the save, despite giving up an earned run on two hits in one-third of an inning of relief. Chandler pitched the first 6.2 innings. He allowed five runs, though only one was earned, on three hits and six walks with three strikeouts in the victory.

Armour went 2 for 3 at the plate with the RBI, while Totherow also went 2 for 3 and scored twice.

Heritage, who went into the series in a four-way tie with Northwest Whitfield, CentralCarroll and Pickens for three remaining playoff spots from the region, ended up as the No. 4 seed with an 11-7 region mark.

Pickens (12-6) grabbed the No. 2 seed with a three-game sweep of Ridgeland and Northwest (11-7) secured the No. 3 seed by beating Central (108), two games to one, in their season-ending series. The Bruins held the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Generals after beating them in the regular season, two games to one, thereby claiming the No. 3 seed.

As the No. 4 seed, Heritage (18-12 overall), will play a doubleheader at Region 5 champion Hampton (19-9) on Wednesday of this week at 3:30 p.m. A third game, if needed, would be played on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.

Those two teams met last year in the second round at Hampton with Heritage winning, 8-3 and 11-1.