Diamond Canes Fall to Prince Avenue
The Monticello Hurricanes traveled to Bogart last week for the conclusion of their series with the Prince Avenue Christian Wolverines, currently the #1 team in Class A, Division 1 in the Coaches Box Poll.
The Wolverines took the first two games of the series, and were looking to pick up the sweep. Tres Cohran started on the mound, keeping the Wolverine hitters off balance by mixing his pitches and having great control of his off-speed pitches to induce the heavy hitting Prince team into a lot of pop-ups and grounders.
The Wolverines struck first in the bottom half of the 1st, knocking a double to right, and then coming around to score on an error to give them a 1-0 lead. In the top of the 2nd, the Hurricanes were able to dent the scoreboard with only one out after a Chevy Sands walk and a single to right by Cayden Banks drove in Sands, but they were unable to come away with any more runs after back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning. The Wolverines threatened in the bottom half, but a routine pop-fly to second baseman Grady Jordan was turned into a double play when the Prince runner strayed too far from the bag.
This quelled the momentum, and after a walk and a hit-by-pitch put runners on 1st and 2nd, Cohran was able to get out the Prince leadoff batter on a fly out to end the inning. The Hurricanes led off the top of the 3rd with back to back singles by Evan Diaz and Cohran to put two on base, and after a strikeout, Hunter Hays walked to load the bases with one out, but Jordan grounded into a double play to end the inning and stop the Hurricane rally with the score still 1-0 going into the bottom of the 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the Wolverines were able to scratch and claw two more runs across, with two long doubles sandwiched around a single plating the runs to give them a 3-1 advantage. The Hurricanes responded though in the top of the 4th, pushing across three runs themselves. Cayden Banks worked a walk after working for an eight-pitch at-bat with one out. The next batter, Ethan McMichael drove a single into center putting runners on 1st and 2nd, and Hunter Sorrows was able to move the runners up after the Prince shortstop misplayed a ground ball, loading the bases. Leadoff batter Diaz was able to drive in Banks with a groundout to Short, advancing all runners, and Tres Cohran continued his hot hitting driving in two more with a single up the middle to give the Hurricanes a 4-3 advantage, and a lead that they would hold into the 6th inning.
Cohran worked 5 and 1/3 tough innings, but after getting the first out of the 6th inning, a triple and a walk put runners at 1st and 3rd. This brought an end to Cohran’s day after a 98-pitch outing against one of the best hitting teams in the state in which he held them to six hits, and five runs, with only three of those earned. Hunter Hays came on to pitch and try to close out the game, but a sac fly from the first batter he faced tied it up, and the one after hit a shot to first, and reached on error to drive in the winning run. Hays was able to strike out the last batter to keep the score at 5-4, and give the Hurricanes a chance in the last inning.
Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, they went 3-up, 3-down in the top of the 7th, ending the game with one of the best efforts of the season for the Hurricanes. Monticello began a series with region rival at Oglethorpe County on Monday, hosted them Tuesday, and will head back there today, April 20.