Vikings defeat Titans in four innings

Northgate 17 Drew 2

Region 4-AAAAA baseball

Vikings' starter Matt Farmakis
pitched three innings in Wednesday afternoon's 17-2 win over the Drew Titans. He allowed a two hits and two runs (one earned) and recorded five strikeouts. 

 After a frustrating afternoon last Friday at home against the McIntosh Chiefs, the Northgate Vikings responded on Wednesday at home with a 17-2 victory over the Drew Titans in a Region 4-AAAAA contest.
The four-inning victory improves the Vikings overall record to 8-4 on the season and 5-2 in the region as they travel to Jonesboro Thursday afternoon to face the Mt. Zion Bulldogs in a game that was originally scheduled for this past Monday but was postponed due to the inclement weather in the area.
After starting pitcher Matt Farmakis breezed through the top of the first inning, the Vikings gave him a lead in the bottom of the frame as James Poropatic led off with a single, moved to second on a groundout and went to third on a wild pitch before coming home a single to center by Tyler Dahlberg.
Dahlberg moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a double down the third base line by Chase Allen to give the Vikings a 2-0 lead.
After Jordan Schmits reached on a walk, Titans' starter Mason Williams appeared to be getting out of a potential mess as he retired Jeffrey Ginn on a strikeout.
However, a ground ball hit to the Drew shortstop by Andrew Burden was misplayed and the bottom began to fall on Williams as Allen came home for a run.
Walks to Jonathan Hamilton and Buddy Green scoreed Schmits and after Poropatic was hit by a pitch, Burden scored to give the Vikings a 5-0 lead.
A wild pitch scored courtesy runner Zach Schmits and a throwing error by the catcher allowed Green to score.
An RBI double by Armond Upshaw and an RBI single by Dahlberg completed the first inning scoring by the Vikings who were shutout by Williams in the bottom of the second innind despite allowing a double to Ginn.
Williams was not as fortunate in the bottom of the third inning as Poropatic reached on a one out walk, stole second on came home on a triple by Upshaw who came when a ground ball hit to second by Dahlberg was misplayed and the lead was 11-2.
A single and a force play followed then Ginn collected an RBI double and an error in the outfield allowed Schmits and Ginn to score and give the home team a 14-2 lead.
Ginn was one of five players for Northgate who had two hits in the game. The others were Poropatic, Upshaw, Dahlberg and Allen.
After a solid three-inning perfoamnce that saw him allow two hits and two runs (one earned) along with five strikeouts, Farmakis was relieved on the mound by Robert Massenburg who was pitching for the first time in a week.
The rust showed as Massenburg walked Brandon Pearson who was erased on an unusual force play in which DeMarcus Reed hit a line drive off the pitcher's side and the ball was retrieved by third baseman Chase Allen who threw to Dahlberg at second for the out.
Massenburg was not hurt as he walked Antonio Gamble before forcing him at second and ending the inning with a strikeout of Tracy Gaston.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Vikings head coach Greg Hamilton unloaded his bench as four players pinch-hit in the frame.
Hamilton led off with a single and after a popfly to third, Poropatic doubled and Zach Schmits advanced to third before both came home courtesy of a single to right field by Connor Wilson.
After a popfly on the infield, an infield error was followed by a single from the bat of Blake Whitney that allowed Wilson to come home with the final run of the game.



 

Indians overcome errors in 6-3 victory

EAST COWETA 6 CALLAWAY 3

SHARPSBURG-Bryce Gemmel went 3-for-4 at the plate while three pitchers combined to allow six hits Thursday night as the East Coweta Indians defeated the Callaway Cavaliers 6-3 despite committing six errors in the field.

The victory improves the Indians overall record to 7-0 on the season while the Cavaliers fell to 5-3.

Defense would hurt the Indians intially as the Cavaliers scored in the top of the first inning as Hunter Heath reached on an infield error, advanced to second on a single by Chase Freeman and scored when a throw on a sacrifice bunt went into right field.

The Indians took the lead in the bottom of the second inning courtesy of the Cavaliers defense as an infield errors extended the frame.

Matthew Meyer and Travis Jones reached on one out singles  and after Cavaliers starting pitcher Nick O'Berry recorded a strikeout, Tim Manning reached on an error by the second baseman that loaded the bases.

A walk to Cameron Smith brought home Meyer with the tying run then Gemmel followed with a single to right that scored courtesy runner Jordan Lewis and Manning to give the Indians a 3-1 lead.

The two-run cushion was enough for Indians starter Austin Bellamy who pitched a solid game in four and two-third innings until he surrendered a single to Heath and a double to Chase Freeman and walked Kane Keith to load the bases.

Bellamy, who recorded six strikeouts and allowed five hits during his start, was replaced on the hill by Meyer who managed to stop the rally Perry Keith hit a ground ball to Manning at second who flipped the ball to travis Williams at shortstop to end the inning.

Meanwhile, O'Berry remained on mound for the Cavaliers despite throwing 100 pitches through the first four frames but finally met his end in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Indians scored three runs to increase their lead to 6-1.

Gemmel led off with his third hit of the game by singling to right and moving to second on a wild pitch before moving to third when Cole Antman grounded out.

After Jonathan Banks reached on a walk, Geremy Walton followed with a double down the third base that brought Gemmel home and moved Banks to third.

A wild pitch by O'Berry scored Banks and moved Walton to third before Banks reached on a walk and O'Berry was lifted from the game aftyer throwing 121 pitches.

After the pitching change, Walton scored the final run of the game for the Indians when Walton scored from third on a sacrifice fly to center field by Jones.

After getting the Indians out of a mess in the top of the fifth inning, Meyer pitched well in the top of the sixth despite Cody Mimbs scoring an unearned run on a single by O'Berry that cut the margin to 6-2.

Antmann took over for Meyer in the top of the seventh inning but ran into trouble early as Freeman reached on an infield error and took second on an errant pickoff throw by the pitcher.

Kane Keith reached on a walk but Perry Keith followed with a ground ball to Meyer who had returned to first base and threw a strike to Williams at short stop for a forceout.

Terry Craft single to left to score Freeman and cut the deficit to 6-3 but Antmann recovered to retire the next two batters on strikeouts to end the contest.

The Indians will host the Luella Lions Monday evening at 5;30 in a makeup game that was rained out on March 11. The two teams met on March 6 with the Indians escaping with an 8-6 eight inning win. 

McCurry leads Indians to win over Tigers

EAST COWETA 4 TROUP 3

SHARPSBURG-Zack McCurry won his fourth game of the season Wednesday night by allowing seven hits and recording 10 strikeouts to lead the East Coweta Indians to a tight 4-3 win over the Troup Tigers.
The Indians improved to 6-0 with the win while the Tigers are 3-3 overall and are 1-2 against Coweta County schools with a win over Northgate and a loss to newnan earlier in the campaign.
East Coweta will host the Callaway Cavaliers in a game against another Troup County school Thursday evening at home.
The Indians struck first as Cameron Smith led off the bottom of the first inning by reaching on an infield single, stole second and advanced to third on an infield error and scored when Jonathan Banks grounded out to second base.
The Tigers tied the game at 1-1 with two outs in the top of the second inning when Dalton Hadley was hit by a pitch and stole second before coming home on a single to right field by Justin Neighbors.
However, in the bottom of the second inning EC regained the lead as Geremy Walton led off with a single and reaced to third when Matthew Meyer lined a single to right field and with one out came home when Travis Williams appeared to hit into a force play at second but the throw was wide and Meyer remained on base.
Bryce Gemmel gave the Indians a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning when he reaced first after a third strike pitch by Tigers' starter Garret McGlurg hit the ground and advanced to second on a wild pitch by McGlurg before scoring on a double to right by Banks.
The Indians scored what proved to be a very important run in the contest with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning when Gemmel reached first via a wild pitch on a strikeout for the second time in the game and advanced to third as the throw to first went into right field.
Cole Antman followed by hitting a single to left field and Gemmel came home to give the Indians a
4-1 lead.
The Tigers cut into the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Jacob Ozley reached on a one out single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by McGlurg and scored on a single to center field by Bruce Danford that Walton narrowly missed.
The top of the seventh inning started out calmly for the Indians but would drive the fans and coaches into a panic mode as the Tigers threartened to tie the game.
Neighbors led off the frame by hitting a ball to left field that Smith missed catching on a diving attempt and after a pair of strikeouts by McCurry, it appeared he woiuld remain there but a single by Brandon Butts advanced to him third and a pair of throwing errors allowed him to score.
Meanwhile, Butts advanced to third on the miscues but McCurry showed strong resiliancy by retiring Cody Doughman on a strikeout to end the game.

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.

  

Indians win in extra innings

ECHS BASEBALL

LOCUST GROVE-The East Coweta Indians scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning to defeat the Luella Lions 8-6 in a non-region baseball game played Thursday evening.

The Indians improved to 4-0 on the season as they will travel to Columbus Thursday to face the Northside Patriots.

With the game tied at 6-6 after regulation, Tim Manning reached on a one out single and advanced to third on a single by Cameron Smith before scoring the go ahead run with a steal of home plate while Smith took third on the play.

Smith would score the second run of the inning on a wild pitch with Cole Antmann at the plate who eventually ended the inning on a flyout.

Antmann was the winning pitcher having tossed 2.7 innings of relief allowing one hit and recording five strikeouts in the win.

The Lions (2-4) took the first lead in the bottom of the first inning but the Indians came back with a pair of runs in the top of the second to assume a 2-1 lead.

Jonathan Banks led off with a double and scored on a one out single by Austin Jones who was replaced on the bases by Austin Bellamy who eventually scored on a two-out single by Manning.

After retiring the first batter in the bottom of the second inning, Indians starter Matthew Meyer ran into trouble as the Lions came back with four runs on two hits and an EC error in the frame to take a 5-2 lead.

Meyer was replaced on the mound during the inning by Bellamy who allowed a run in the bottom of the sixth inning before yielding to Antmann.

The Indians cut into the Lions’ lead in the top of the fourth inning as Banks led off with a double and Bryce Gemmel followed with a single.

After Jones was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Jordan Lewis batted for Travis Williams and a wild pitch allowed Banks to score and Gemmel was able to come home on a groundout by Manning that cut the score to 5-4 in favor of Luella.

The Indians took a 6-5 lead in the top of the sixth inning as Gemmel reached on a bunt single and Jones followed with a double.and two outs later Gemmel scored on an error on the infield and McCurry scored after a bases loaded walk to Antman.

The lead didn’t last long as the Lions tied the game at 6-6 on a wild pitch by Bellamy.

In other games, Northgate and Ola will make up their game Thursday afternoon after a postponement on Wednesday due to bad weather while Newnan will play at Carrollton and Trinity will play at the Glenwood School.

Cougars overcome errors defeat Grangers

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

NEWNAN 7 LaGRANGE 5

The Newnan Cougars scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and overcame six errors Tuesday night to defeat the LaGrange Grangers 7-5 in a non-region baseball game played at Joe Pope Field.
With the game tied at 5-5 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Devin Henry ledoff reaching first base after being hit by a pitch from losing pitcher Tristain Daugherty and moved to second on a groundout by Derrick Nelson.
Rodney Tennie followed with a single to center field that scored Henry and the former was able to race into second on a throw to the plate.
Tennie scored the final run of the evening when he went to third on a flyball to right field by Jonathan Swenson and was eventually awarded home after a balk was called against Daugherty.
After a solid outing that saw him allow six hits and record three strikeouts in six innings, Sumner was replaced by Will Greggors who pitched an effective top of the seventh inning for the save allowing one baserunner on an error but a double play erased the runner and ended the game.
The Grangers took the lead in the top of the first inning as Bryce Todd reached first on an infield error and advanced on a single by Jack Bradford before an errant throw from the outfield allowed home to be awarded home.
After hitting Granger catcher Price Peters with a pitch, Cougars starter Thomas Sumner recovered to record a forceplay, a line drive to shortstop and a groundout to minimize the damage.
Sumner's teammates helped him out in the bottom of the first inning as Nelson and Tennie reached on back-to-back errors by the Grangers and both came home on a one-out double down the third base line by Brandon Dawson.
After Sam Buchanan and Connor Dunn were hit by pitches, Dawson was able to give the Cougars a 3-1 when he came home on a wild pitch surrendered by LaGrange starter Mitchell Donahue.
In the bottom ofthe second inning, Newnan added to the lead as Henry led off the frame with a single and stole second and after Jonathan Swenson reached with two-outs after being hit by a pitch, Henry was able to score on Dawson's second conseciutive run producing double of the night.
Swenson, who advanced to third on Dawson's double came home to give the Cougars a 5-1 lead as Buchanan singled but the inning ended as Dawson tried to score on the hit.
Dawson and Buchanan had two hits each as well as Henry in the game for the Cougars.
After two innings, Donahue was replaced on the mound by Cord Carson who gave LaGrange hope as he was able to keep Newnan off the scoreboard for three innings and allow his team to tie the game in the top of the fifth inning.
Caleb Buchanan reached on a leadoff single and advanced to second as a double play attempt went awry on an infield error.
After Sumner retired Chas Pardue on a strikeout, Todd singled to left allowing Buchanan to come home and cut the margin to 5-2 and Zach Giddens to reach second.
Bradford reached on a forceplay and Peters followed with a single that scored Todd and cut the margin to 5-3 and both moved up a base after the ball was misplayed in left field.
A controversial balk was called on Sumner and Bradford came home to cut the lead to 5-4 and cause Newnan head coach Kenny Morris to come out of the dugout and plead his case to no avail.
After Morris returned to the dugout, Sumner surrendered a single to Jake Norton that scored courtesy runner Wynton Heard from and tie the game at 5-5.
The Cougars will be on the road Thursday afternoon when they travel to Carroll County to face the Carrollton Trojans.
In other Coweta baseball, the East Coweta game at Luella and the Heritage-Arlington matchup were rained out. The Indians-Lions game and will be played Wednesday while Northgate will play a regularly scheduled game at home against Ola.

Indians take advantage of Eagles miscues to win in five

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

SHARPSBURG-The East Coweta Indians took advantage of five errors and two wild pitches on a cold and windy Friday night to defeat the South Forsyth Eagles 10-0 in a game called after five innings under the mercy rule.

The victory improves the Indians’ record to 3-0 in the early season while the Eagles fell to 2-3.
The Indians scored the only run they would need on the night in the bottom of the first inning as Cameron Smith reached on a triple that went over the right fielder’s head and eventually came home on a wild pitch with one out and Cole Antmann at the plate.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Indians added to their run total as Geremy Walton reached on an infield single with two outs in the frame and came home on a double to left field by Jonathan Smith.
Two out magic returned to the Indians in the bottom of the fourth inning as Tim Manning reached on a walk and stole second before two more walks followed and a wild pitch brought him home from third.
Unfortunately for South Forsyth, the bottom of the fifth inning would become a nightmare as the Indians capitalized on errors to score seven times to end the game.
Walton led off with an infield single and stole second before coming home on a single to right by Banks who would hustle to second on the throw home and move to third on an errant pickoff attempt before he scored on a single to right from Bryce Gemmel.
After advancing to second on a groundout and advancing to third on a pinch hit single by Jordan Lewis,
Gemmel gave the Indians a 6-0 lead when he scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Manning that also allowed Lewis to reach third.
Lewis scored as Smith reached on an error by the Eagles shortstop and after Matthew Meyer  reached first after being hit by a pitch, Antmann hit a flyball to right field that was dropped allowing Smith and Meyer to score and the Indians’ batter to reach second.
For the second time of the inning, Walton came to the plate and hit a ground ball to shortstop that was mishandled and allowed Antmann to score the final run of the night.
Walton, Banks and Gemmel had two hits each in the victory while Zach McCurry had a solid outing on the mound allowing a third inning single to Zack Baus and a walk while recording four strikeouts.
The Indians will have two road games in the upcoming week with a Tuesday March 5 game at Luella and  a game on Thursday March 7 at Northside-Columbus.