Cartersville LL 12U wins Game 1 in best-of-five district championship series

Cartersville Little League 12U rallied from four runs behind to edge Rockmart 6-4 in Game 1 of the Georgia Little League District 1 championship series at Rudy York Field in Atco. With only two teams in the 12U division of District 1, Cartersville and Rockmart are facing off in a best-of-five series scheduled with one game each day through Wednesday (July 1) if five games are needed. Rockmart scored four times in the top of the first to take an early lead in the series opener, but Cartersville’s pitching shut out the Polk County club over the next five frames to make way for the comeback. Jackson Norris (4.1IP, 6H, 3ER, 3BB, 7K) started on the mound for Cartersville and yielded those early runs, but settled things down over the next several innings to give his offense time and a chance. Christian Martin (1.2IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 1K) picked up the pitching victory for Cartersville in relief. Tyler Pate scored on Norris’ sacrifice fly in the first for Cartersville to narrow the deficit to 4-1. In the third, Cartersville tied the game with a three-run rally. Nick Bailey started the inning with a double to left field, before Norris and Matthew Surrett hit back-to-back, two-out homeruns. Cartersville scored the decisive runs in the bottom of the fifth. Tyler Putz reached to start the fifth when he was hit by a pitch. Norris then doubled to right field moving Putz to third. Trevor Montgomery followed with a 2-RBI single to put the locals up 6-4. Norris and Charlie Heidmann had a pair of hits each for Cartersville. Surrett, Montgomery, Bailey, and Alex Freeman had the other Cartersville hits. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Sunday (June 28) at 3pm. Game 3 will be Monday night at 7pm. If needed, Game 4 is scheduled for Tuesday at 8:30pm and Game 5 would be Wednesday at 8:30pm.

All games in the 12U District 1 championship series are scheduled for Rudy York Field.