Canes' bats quiet in loss to DeSoto Central (Ala.) at PG Showdown

Cartersville baseball stood toe-to-toe with DeSoto Central (Ala.) for five innings Friday night in the quarterfinal round of the Perfect Game High School Showdown’s White Bracket, but a big sixth inning by the Jaguars ultimately secured a 5-1 win.

A pair of DeSoto Central pitchers — Gavin Brassfield and Colton Coates — combined to limit Cartersville to just one hit.

DeSoto Central opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first inning on three singles. From there, the two teams battled scoreless and stalemated for the next four and one-half innings.

In the Jags’ half of the sixth, they produced three hits and took advantage of a hit batsman and a walk to build a 5-0 advantage.

Trip Bradley singled to drive in a run in the Canes’ half of the seventh and Cartersville loaded the bases with two outs, but their threat ended with a groundout.

Brassfield (5 IP, 0R, 0H, 5BB, 6K) worked five complete innings for DeSoto Central without allowing a run or a hit to collect the pitching victory. Coates (2 IP, 1ER, 1H, 3BB, 3K) closed out the final two innings for the Jaguars.

Cartersville’s Ryan Johnson (5 IP, 2ER, 4H, 2BB, 4K) was tagged with the pitching loss. Geoffrey Gore (1 IP, 3ER, 2H, 1BB) retired the final three outs for the Canes.

Luke Sides, Austin Kilpatrick, and Noah Smith combined for four of the Jaguars’ six hits and combined for four RBIs.

DeSoto Central improved to 5-3 on the season and advanced to Friday night’s semifinal round to play Archbishop McCarthy (Fla.).

Cartersville (5-1) will play a pair of consolation games Saturday at 11:30 a.m. ET and at 2 p.m. on Field 3 at the hover Met Sports Complex. The Canes will play Hartselle (Ala.) in the later game. Their early game opponent had not been determined at the time of this article's release.