Wildcats edged in Battle for Bartow fifth place game

The Woodland Wildcats dropped a hard-fought, low-scoring battle to Riverside High School of Greer, South Carolina Saturday afternoon in the fifth place game of the 2020 Battle for Bartow Baseball Classic at LakePoint in Emerson.

Riverside, who escaped with a 2-0 win over Woodland and finished 2-1 in the tournament, scored the only two runs of the game in the bottom of the third inning on a pair of doubles and a pair of singles.

Otherwise, Woodland starter Peyton Posey limited the Warriors to only two other base hits in his six innings of work. Posey walked one and struck out three. Both Riverside runs were earned. Woodland had a pair of chances late with baserunners in scoring position against the tough Warriors' pitching, but came up short of plating any runs. Andrew Davis earned the pitching win for Riverside. The starter went four and two-thirds innings and fanned four. The Warriors utilized three other pitchers down the stretch with Brody Fahr closing out the seventh inning to earn a save.

Carter Heath had two hits for Woodland. Posey and Chase Carson had the other Wildcats’ base hits in the loss. Heath was also the Wildcats' representative on the Battle for Bartow All-Tournament Team. He completed the three-game tournament going 4-for-8 at the plate with a pair of walks and two RBI.

Woodland (4-4) returns to action and opens Region 7-AAAAA play Wednesday at Paulding County. The Wildcats will host the Patriots in the home-and-home series Friday and play at Kennesaw Mountain in a non-region game Saturday. Both games with Paulding County are 5:55 p.m. starts. Saturday’s game with the Mustangs is a 1 p.m. first pitch.