CALHOUN, Ga. -- In a high school baseball season filled with big games, it might have been easy for the surging Sonoraville Phoenix to overlook an Adairsville team scuffling of late.
Coach Deron Walraven, though, wasn't too worried for a couple of reasons. One, his team remembers the 9-0 whipping the Tigers put on them earlier in the season. Two, Thad Harris was on the mound.
With his ace pitching a complete game with nine strikeouts and smashing a two-run homer, Walraven's Phoenix cruised to a 5-0 win that keeps them in second place in tough Region 6-AAA at 8-2 (12-6 overall).
"Thad is a special player and he's performed well in the big games we've had lately both on the mound and with the bat in his hands," Walraven said of the senior left-hander. "This keeps us one game behind Ringgold with one game to play with them. We've got to go out the last six games and take care of business, and with Ringgold being that last game we hope it means something."
Harris scattered seven hits, including three in an adventurous fourth inning when the Tigers looked to answer after Harris' homer to right field in the third. Lane Griffith opened the Adairsville fourth with a single, but Harris quickly picked off a pinch runner. However, Reese Spencer and Sean McDermott followed with singles, with the runners reaching third and second on an outfield error.
The Tigers then tried a squeeze play, but Harris' fastball was high to Drake Arp, who could not get the bat on the ball. While the runner at third managed to get back to his base, Spencer was cut down at second for out two. Harris then finished off Arp and the threat with a strikeout.
"Adairsville likes to put the ball on the ground, so we were ready for it, but it's different doing it in games as opposed to practice," Walraven said. "Fortunately for us he missed the pitch and we were able to get them in the rundown. It was especially nice because they were threatening right after we had scored our first two runs."
Harris stranded two more runners in the fifth and the score remained 2-0 into the bottom of the sixth, when Sonoraville added insurance on Brandon Dendy's two-run single and Brevin Harris' two-out RBI hit. Thad Harris then retired the Tigers in order in the seventh.
"This game is huge, especially after they beat us so badly the first time around," the pitcher-slugger said. "I had all three of my pitches working today, so I didn't have to work both sides of the plate as much."
Brevin Harris had two of Sonoraville's six hits, while McDermott and Landon Howren had two hits each for Adairsville (10-8-1, 7-5).
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296.