An unhappy ending

By Larry Fleming
larryfleming@daltoncitizen.com

May 15, 2008 12:10 am

— CONYERS — Ryan Jubran’s two-run single highlighted a three-run sixth inning and state-ranked Heritage beat Dalton, 6-2, Tuesday night to complete a two-game sweep of their Class 4A state baseball tournament series at Danny Blue Field.
Despite losing two outfielders to injuries, the fourth-ranked Patriots (26-4) won the first game, 6-5, on Tyler Austin’s leadoff home run in the 11th inning off Catamounts reliever Nick Ray. It was Austin’s second homer of the game.
Heritage, which had a 20-game winning streak earlier this season, now advances to the third round where the Patriots will face the Statesboro-Griffin winner on Tuesday.
Dalton, appearing in the second round of the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons, ends its season at 16-14.
“They’ve got a good ballclub,” Dalton coach Bobby Brotherton said. “They did a lot of things well, but our kids fought them. We just didn’t hit in certain situations. Nobody thought we’d get this far, but our kids are resilient, hard-nosed players. We’ll go back to the drawing board now.”
In the second game, the Patriots built a 3-0 lead on run-scoring doubles by Nick Matteen and Brock Holley in the second inning, and Matteen’s RBI single in the third against Dalton starter Colton Kinnamon, who went to the mound undefeated in five games with a 2.19 ERA.
Beau Blackwood scored both Dalton runs, coming home on Michael Richardson’s third-inning double and Stryker Brown’s single in the fifth. Blackwood led off the fifth with a triple to right field.
Kinnamon, whose three-run triple was the key blow in the Cats’ four-run seventh inning to tie the first game, yielded eight hits in the nightcap. He struck out seven.
Richardson had three of Dalton’s nine hits in the second game.
• Game 1: Heritage 6, Dalton 5 (11 innings): Austin delivered a solo homer in the second inning, giving the Patriots a 4-0 lead while starting pitcher Anthony Bazzani was shutting the Cats down without a hit over four innings.
Austin ended the 4-hour, 4-minute marathon with his clutch homer leading off the Patriots’ 11th off Dalton’s Nick Ray, the third pitcher used by Brotherton. Austin hit a 2-0 Ray offering high over the left-field wall for the game-winner.
The Patriots jumped on Dalton starter Mackie Sheets for three runs in the first, two coming on Joseph Lester’s single just over the head of Cats second baseman Stryker Brown.
Brown broke up Bazzani’s no-hit bid with a two-out double to left-center field in the fifth. Shortstop Michael Richardson, who had a tough time defensively with five of the Cats’ seven errors in the game, ripped an opposite-field single to right, but right fielder Ryan Cochran cut Brown down at the plate.
Brown argued the call with the plate umpire and was restricted to the dugout for the duration of the game and replaced at second base by Kinnamon, like Brown a sophomore. However, Brown was back in the lineup for the second game.
Held to two hits over six innings, Harrison led off with a walk but was forced out on Phillip Schenck’s fielder’s choice. Mitch Townsend and Beau Blackwood, the eighth- and ninth-place batters, followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases.
In his first at-bat of the season, Kinnamon hit a Bazzani pitch into right-center where Lester and Cochran collided. All three runners scored and Kinnamon wound up at third and the Cats were back in the ballgame.
The game was stopped for 37 minutes and both Heritage outfielders were taken to the hospital in the same ambulance.
“Lester has two clean breaks in his left leg,” Teal said while writing out his second-game lineup. “They’re still running tests on Cocrhan, so I don’t know about his status.”
Kinnamon, who eventually scored the game-tying run on Heritage reliever Nick Matteen’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt at third, pumped life into the Cats’ offense with his critical triple.
“With one out and us down 4-0, I was just trying to get the ball on the right side and advance the runners,” Kinnamon said. “I saw those guys collide and I slowed down at second to make sure the other runners were were still advancing.
“We played a great game. Everybody was focused, loud and pumped up.”
Dalton took a 5-4 lead in the eighth when Sheets, who was hit by a pitch, later scored on Schenck’s safety squeeze bunt with none out.
The Patriots’ Brandon Thomas reached on another Richardson error and came home on Bazzani’s game-tying double off the wall in right center.
“They thought we were dead right away,” Brotherton said. “But we kept fighting back. We got the run to go up 5-4 and I thought we were OK. They came back and we got one up in the wheelhouse to Austin there in the 11th inning.”

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.