3rd-ranked Canes blank Woodland as Earwood tosses three-hitter

Michah Earwood tossed a complete-game, three-hit shutout Tuesday night to lead 3rd-ranked Cartersville to a 6-0 Region 7-AAAAA win over Woodland at Richard Bell Field.

Earwood issued a first inning walk with two outs and that baserunner reached third base after an infield error, but that would be as close as the Wildcats would come to scoring.

Blake Sutton gave Cartersville a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with an infield single and RBI. Curt Bonner made it 2-0 in the second inning with an RBI single and the Canes carried that lead until the bottom of the fifth when they struck for four more insurance runs.

Hank Smith and Colt McKibben had the only base hits in the four-run inning. A pair of Woodland errors, a sacrifice fly off the bat of Elliott Eastin, and a dropped third strike/wild pitch contributed to the scoring.

Woodland starter Ayden Ray (2 IP, 2R, 1ER, 3H, 2BB) suffered the pitching loss despite allowing only one earned run. Drew Billings (4 IP, 4R, 1ER, 5H, 5K) worked the final four frames for the Wildcats, striking out five.

Jakiyon Porter, Jacob Gravett, and Ray had one hit each for Woodland.

The Wildcats fall to 5-12 overall and 1-6 in region play.

Cartersville (11-5, 6-1) will travel to Woodland Friday to complete the three-game series in a doubleheader scheduled for 5 p.m.

BLESSED TRINITY 9, CASS 0

A six-run third inning helped lift 2nd-ranked Blessed Trinity to an eventual 9-0 win over visiting Cass Tuesday night in Roswell.

The Titans led 1-0 after one inning before adding six runs in the third and two more in the fourth inning.

Titans’ pitcher D.J. Radke went five innings and Jackson Seng closed out the final two on the mound. The two limited Cass to only two hits and three walks. They combined for 11 strikeouts.

Matt Shook had both Cass hits.

Blessed Trinity (12-6, 6-1) travels to Cass (6-10, 5-2) for a doubleheader Friday.