Diamond Canes Finish Second in Region Tournament
By ZACH HOUSTON
The Monticello Hurricane baseball program faced a big week over the last week of regular season play. Coming into the week sitting in the third spot in the region by one game to Lamar County, the Hurricanes needed to win two of the three games to win the second seed (by virtue of head-to-head tiebreaker), and also to secure home-field advantage for the 1st round of the GHSA Class A Division 1 playoffs.
As previously mentioned when the Hurricanes took on Putnam County, taking on Lamar is a similar task, and the records of each can be thrown out the window, as it is guaranteed to be a close matchup. Lamar came into the series with a 14-9 record, and sitting at 9-3 in the region, the home-standing Canes were 15-11, 8-4 in region play, setting up for another great series.
Game one of the series was played in Barnesville last Tuesday. Both teams started their big arms, the Trojans going with Logan Miller, and the Hurricanes with junior Grady Jordan. The game came down to the bullpen however, as both starters were out of the game early. Brayden Lewis came into the game with the Hurricanes down 3-2 in the bottom of the third and runners on 1st and 3rd with only one out and commenced to sit down the first two batters he faced on strikes to end the Lamar threat. That was the last serious threat of the game for the Trojans, as Lewis went three and two-thirds of an inning, only allowing four hits and walking one, while striking out nine Trojan hitters.
The Hurricanes obtained their initial two runs in the top half of that inning, with senior Chandler Aguirre lacing a single to right field driving in Jaxson Cohran, and a misplay by the right fielder allowed Ethan McMichael to come around all the way from first to plate the second run. In the top of the fourth, they added two more to take a lead that they would not relinquish. Sophomore Nolan Dean reached base on a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Freshman Owen Houston attempted to move him up with a sacrifice bunt, but heads up baserunning by Dean made Miller, the pitcher, attempt to throw him out at second, making both Dean and Houston safe.
Another bunt by senior Hunter Sorrows was fielded by Miller again, and this time he was able to throw Dean out at third. After a pop-up by Gavin Bennett, the Hurricane magic struck again with two outs, this time leadoff hitter Cohran laced a single up the middle that scored Houston, and again another outfield misplay allowed Sorrows to come home on the error. This put the Canes up 4-3.
In the fifth, the Hurricanes added two more runs on just one hit. McMichael led off with a single, was moved up and around after walks to Brayden Lewis and Dean. A wild pitch scored McMichael, to make it 5-3, and after a hard lineout to short by Houston, Sorrows walked to reload the bases. A passed ball by Lamar allowed Dean to scoot home and make the score 6-3. The Hurricanes added their final run in the top of the sixth to close the scoring with Brelynd Beasley on a hit by Aguirre and more Lamar fielding errors. Cohran came in and shut the door in the bottom half of the seventh to give the Canes the win 7-3, and a 1-0 advantage in the series.
Game two and three were played last Friday in Monticello. The Hurricanes, playing for home field advantage and a series win, hoped to continue the momentum from Tuesday, and continue it they did, starting out by going up 1-0 on a big fly home run by Beasley, who also was the starting pitcher for the evening. The Trojans evened it back up on a home run of their own in the top half of the second, and much like the previous game, took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning of the game, where a misplayed flip to first allowed Lamar to plate two runs on what would have been the third out of the inning. The ‘Canes again came back and showed fighting spirit, getting four runs with, you guessed it, two outs in the inning. With runners at first and second, Ethan McMichael walked to load the bases, and Aguirre again came through, lining the first pitch right back up the middle, and scoring Sorrows and Cohran to knot the score at three. McMichael and courtesy runner Houston advanced on a passed ball, and Justin Crowder walked to reload the bases. Sophomore Tyler Ripley then laced a seeing-eye single up the middle that scored both McMichael and Houston, and put the score at Hurricanes 5, Trojans 3.
The Trojans battled back to a one-run deficit in the top half of the sixth after an error, groundout, and sacrifice fly cut the Hurricane lead to 5-4. The Hurricanes had two more runs left in them though, and scored both of them with, yes sir, two outs in the bottom of the sixth. Sorrows led off the inning with a walk, and Bennett laid down another sacrifice bunt to move him up 90-feet and flip the lineup at the same time. Cohran struck out, and Beasley was intentionally walked, bringing up McMichael to the plate. With the count 3-0, he doubled to left, driving in Sorrows and Beasley to get to the final margin of 7-4. Beasley went six innings in this one, giving up seven hits, four runs, only two of which were earned, walking three, and striking out seven. Cohran came in for the final three outs, notching his second save of the week.
Game three did not go the Hurricanes way, as they fell by a score of 9-4. All the action was early on in this one, as Cohran started the game reaching on an error by the shortstop, Beasley was plunked by a Trojan pitch, and McMichael crushed his sixth home run of the season to give the Hurricanes an early 3-0 lead. The Trojans responded with nine runs over the course of the third and fourth innings to put the game away.
The victory in game two clinched the second spot in Region 4-A, which put the Hurricanes within the top 12 as region champions and runner-ups are guaranteed a first round home field matchup. They finished the regular season at 17-12, 10-5 in region play, and will take on the #21 seeded Haralson County tomorrow, April 25 at 4:30 p.m. in the first game of the first round. Friday’s matchup is a doubleheader, followed by an “if” game on Saturday at 1 p.m. were the teams to split. This is the first home playoff series that the Hurricanes have hosted since 2015, so come out and support the Hurricanes.