Cartersville's pitching continues to dominate; McKibben, Williams blank Ringgold

For the second day in a row, Cartersville’s pitching grabs the headlines with the staff now compiling 14 consecutive shutout innings leading to back-to-back 2-0 wins.

Wednesday evening the Canes’ Colt McKibben and Davis Williams teamed up to scatter two hits and four walks to win at Class AAA 6th-ranked Ringgold. The duo’s performance came on the heels of Micah Earwood’s seven inning, two-hitter Tuesday to beat Sandy Creek 2-0.

McKibben (5 IP, 0R, 2H, 3BB, 3K) started on the mound Wednesday and went five innings striking out three. He had to settle for a no-decision since the game remained scoreless until the seventh. Williams (2 IP, 0R, 0H, 1BB, 2K) worked the final two frames fanning two and picked up the pitching victory.

Ringgold pitchers Robbie Bates (4.1 IP, 0R, 2H, 4BB, 3K) and Colin Mountjoy (2.2 IP, 2ER, 2H, 1BB, 1K) kept the Hurricanes off the scoreboard until the top of the seventh.

A leadoff single by Elliott Eastin started the Cartersville seventh inning. It was followed by a pop out, two hit batsmen, and a line out to set up Blake Sutton’s ground ball single that pushed across the game’s only two runs.

In addition to the two seventh inning hits by the Canes, Curt Bonner doubled in the fifth inning and Sutton had a base hit in the second.

The loss drops Ringgold to 15-6 for the season.

Cartersville (16-7, ranked No. 5 in Class AAAAA) will play Cedartown Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Battle for Bartow at LakePoint.

The Canes will then play Centennial (1 p.m.) and Johns Creek (7 p.m.) Friday in the same event.