Tough day for Vikings in 5-1 loss to Mustangs

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL ROUNDUP

Northgate pitcher Robert Massenburg delivers a pitch to Patric Sanders of Ola during Thursday's game. Sanders had an infield single that scored the first run of the game.

The Northgate Vikings were unable to solve Trey Rampy and the Ola Mustangs Thursday evening as the pitcher surrendered three hits and recorded five strikeouts in a 5-1 Region 4-AAAAA victory on the Vikings' field.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Vikings who fell to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in the region while the Mustangs have the same region record and are 6-1 overall.

While Rampy had a successful afternoon, Vikings' starter Robert Massenburg had the opposite result which started inthetop of the first inning as he walked Andrew Sarsany to start the game and after recording a strikeout walked two more batters to load the bases before an infield single by Patric Sanders allowed Sarsany to score.

Masenburg retired the next two batters on strikeouts but his problems continued in the top of the second inning as he surrendered four consecutive singles and two runs before Vikings head coach Greg Hamilton lifted him in favor of Blake Whitney.

Whitney managed to get out of trouble as he retired a batter on a flyball to right and recorded a strikeout that led to a doubleplay as catcher Spencer Perry threw out Conner Schlottman trying to steal second base.

Whitney would hold the Mustangs until the top of the fifth inning when Sanders reached on a two-out walk and scored on an infield error.

Buddy Green took over for Whitney in the top of the sixth inning and surrendered three hits in the frame including a one out RBI single to Ryan John.

As for Rampy, he continued to get Viking batters to hit the ball to his fielders who provided him with solid defense with the exception of two doubles by Tyler Dahlberg and a second inning single by Chase Allen who scored on an error by Rampy as Whitney reached on a bunt.

In other county baseball, the East Coweta won their second road game in 24 hours as they defeated the Northside Patriots 9-2 in Columbus while the Newnan Cougars suffered a 6-2 road loss to the Carrollton Trojans.

The Indians (5-0) scored in the top of the first inning when two errors allowed Bryce Gemmel to come home with a run and in the top of the third, Cameron Smith led off with a single and eventually scored while Gemmel walked and came home on a two-out single by Matthew Meyer.

Meyer and Jonathan Banks each were 2-for-4 at the plate.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Indians broke the game open with six runs to take a 9-0 advantage.

Most of the damage during the frame was committed by Meyer who had an RBI single and Cameron Smith who had a two-run single to give him a 3-for-4 outing on the evening..

The beneficiary of the run support was Zach McCurry (3-0) who tossed five innings of shutout baseball allowing two hits before he was replaced by Gemmel in the bottom of the sixth.

Gemmel allowed one hit and a walk in one inning before he was replaced on the mound by Jay Mann in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Mann allowed a hit and two runs to the Patriots who were able to avert a shutout.

In the Cougars' loss, pitching was the name of the game as two Trojans' hurlers recorded 10 strikeouts in the game.

The Trojans took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth inning.

There are no games scheduled for Friday but the Heritage Hawks will play in a round robin tournament Saturday in Macon at Covenant Academy.