Cavaliers sweep doubleheader
Published 9:41 pm Monday, March 4, 2019
By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY
Daily News
THOMASTON – Brooks Bledsoe’s walk-off hit gave the Callaway Cavaliers a 5-4 victory and a doubleheader sweep of Upson-Lee on Saturday.
After winning the opening game 8-2, Callaway was trailing by a run heading into the bottom of the seventh inning of the second game.
After the Cavaliers (5-1) tied it, Bledsoe’s base hit brought in Braelin Mitchell with the game-winning run.
Callaway head coach Dusty Hubbard felt the highlight of the day was the performance of an offense that struggled a bit in a 4-3 loss to Bowdon.
Among the offensive stalwarts was Braelin Mitchell, who had a home run and a double in the 5-4 win.
“I thought we were a lot better offensively,” Hubbard said. “We really have worked the last three or four days just letting the ball get to us, and stay through the ball. I think we probably have 16, 17 hits in the doubleheader. We had a better approach at the plate.”
Callaway’s pitchers also had an effective day.
In the final game, Walt Stewart started and pitched six innings, and Austin Barber threw a scoreless seventh inning to get the win.
In the opener, Dawson Wright started and threw 4 1/3 innings, and while he wasn’t at his best, he worked around seven hits to hold Upson-Lee to two runs.
Barber and Justin Moore finished things off on the mound in game one.
“Pitching-wise, I thought we competed hard today,” Hubbard said. “Dawson didn’t have his best stuff, but he grinded out 4 1/3. He’s able to navigate through and get out of some jams.”
In the 8-2 victory, Luke Swann had a terrific game from the middle of the lineup.
Swann, the number five hitter, had three hits, including a double, and two RBIs.
Wesley Marchman had a double and an RBI, Austin Cardwell had a hit and an RBI, and Drake Wade, Jabari Smith and Mitchell each had a hit.
The game was tied 2-2 when Callaway took the lead with two runs in the top of the fourth inning.
The Cavaliers tacked on four key insurance runs in the seventh inning.
On the mound, Wright got the win with his gutsy performance, and Barber go the final two outs of the fifth inning.
Moore was dominant in his two innings of work, holding Upson-Lee to no hits and zero runs to get the save.
In the second game, Mitchell had a monster effort with a solo home run, a run-scoring double, two walks, two runs scored, and three RBIs.
Trent Sheppard had three hits and three runs scored, and Drake Wade had two hits from the top of the lineup.
Bledsoe had one hit, and it was the big one that won the game in the seventh inning.
Stewart started and pitched six innings, and he gave up three earned runs on four hits and five walks.
Barber worked around a hit and a walk to pitch a scoreless top of the seventh inning.
Callaway has road games against Brookstone on Thursday and LaGrange on Friday before opening Region 5-AA play next week against Bremen.