Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 4/28/17. Ringgold's Noah Parrish (20) just misses a tag on Jackson's Chris Griggs (10) at first on April 28, 2017. RINGGOLD, Ga. - Georgia's top-ranked AAA baseball team wasted little time or effort Friday in advancing to the state tournament's round of 16, winning both games in a home doubleheader.
With 7-3 and 5-0 victories, Brent Tucker's Ringgold Tigers also eliminated the need for a game today in the best-of-three series with Jackson County, an opponent they've seen often in the postseason.
The Tigers (27-5) will host the winner between Jackson and Appling County in another best-of-three Thursday.
"We played pretty well. We've seen these guys three of the last five years," said Tucker, whose team needed less than five hours - including intermission - to dispatch the Panthers.
Tucker accorded the bulk of the credit for the quickness of the games to pitchers Nathan Camp (7-2) and Holden Tucker (6-2).
"Those guys like to get out there and get to work. They don't like to waste time," the coach said.
The only time pitcher Tucker wasted was hobbling from the dugout to the mound, specifically after the third inning.
"Everything below my waist was cramping up," the sophomore lefty said. "I was drinking a lot of PowerAdes and standing on a stretch board between innings."
His mom, on pins and needles throughout that second game, only hopes he has learned a lesson. She was headed to the store to purchase some Pedialyte after saying he drank soft drinks morning, noon and night.
On one ball snagged at the grass by his first baseman, Holden made only a token move to cover the bag. He couldn't run.
The PowerAdes must've kicked in by the time he next batted.
In the fifth, after being hit for in his previous turn at the plate, he followed a double off the center-field wall by batterymate Dalton Schley with a double to right-center. It doubled the Tigers' lead to 2-0. Then in the sixth he punched a slow looper to left that plated two more runs and extended the Ringgold advantage to 4-0.
"Yeah, I like his pitching, but what about his hitting!" Coach Tucker praised.
"I like the second hit better. It scored more runs," Holden said. "The pitching, well, I just fought for these seniors - let them play a few more games."
He threw a four-hitter, walking one and hitting another, surviving three scoreless innings from his teammates at the plate before being staked to a lead on Andre Tarver's high and deep opposite-field home run to left.
Camp was involved in a duel through most of Game 1. He gave up a run in the first and the Tigers gave him a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second on Hunter Ricketts' two-run homer, a rocket shot. Jackson County tied it in the fifth and Ringgold countered on Ricketts' RBI double in the bottom of the inning. The Tigers finally broke it open with four in the bottom of the sixth on Ricketts' bases-loaded walk and a two-run single from Gavin Hollis.
Camp scattered seven hits and overcame three Ringgold errors while giving up just two earned runs.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.