Hurricanes advance to the Class AAAA Final Four

May 8, 2025

Avery Shiflett

The Cartersville Purple Hurricanes won the third and deciding game of their Class 4A quarterfinal series at St. Pius X Catholic on Thursday to advance to the GHSA Baseball Final Four for the third time in the last four seasons.

Starting pitcher Avery Shiflett tossed six solid innings to secure Cartersville’s 5-1 victory. The southpaw allowed just one earned run on six hits and four walks while recording six strikeouts. Maddox Frazier entered in the final inning and retired the final three outs. Frazier yielded one hit and one walk.

Julez Pratt

Canes’ center fielder Thomas Peters had three hits and two RBI to pace the offense. Catcher Julez Pratt and shortstop David Vargas produced two hits and one RBI. Nolan Elrod added a hit, and Andrew Purdy drove in a run in the second inning with a bases-loaded walk.

Michael Dee went 3-for-3 with a walk at the top of the Golden Lions’ order. Bobby Frierson had two hits and drove in the only St. Pius run in the sixth inning.

The season ended for the Golden Lions with a 34-4 record.

Cartersville (29-8) advanced to a state semifinal appearance and a best-of-three series at Wayne County next Tuesday and Wednesday if needed. In their quarterfinal series, the Yellow Jackets (32-5) defeated Kell 3-2 and 5-4.

Allatoona (31-3) will play in the other state semifinal series against Blessed Trinity (27-7). The Titans edged Marist in Game 3 of their quarterfinal series with a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to advance with a 9-8 win. Allatoona won two one-run games over Kell in the quarterfinals.