RINGGOLD, Ga. — If someone had walked onto Bill Womack Field in the aftermath of Cartersville’s 6-5 win over Ringgold in a crucial Region 6-AAA game Friday night, it would have been difficult for that person to determine which team had just won.
On one side, Cartersville coach Stuart Chester was lecturing his team about finishing games. On the other, Ringgold players were cutting up with coach Brent Tucker even though the Tigers had just lost their second league game in two days.
It wasn’t that the Tigers were jubilant in defeat. It was more about a still-young team realizing it could play with the defending state champions to the final out.
“For whatever reason, we came out tight this week, so for 18 innings this week, we played that way,” Tucker said. “The last two innings, that was us. Even though we’re coming off back-to-back losses, we found ourselves.
“This is a team that just manhandled us last year, and we had the tying run at the plate. Those situations, and doing what we just did, you can build off that loss. The swagger, or whatever you call it, came back the last two innings. I just hope we carry it over to next week.”
The loss puts the Tigers (18-6, 9-3) in third place in 6-AAA, while the Hurricanes (16-6, 10-1) remain tied for first with Carrollton with one week to play in the regular season.
Down 6-0 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, the Tigers could have taken their beating and gone home. However, Adam Weldon’s two-run double off Ben Dittmer changed their attitude. In the next inning, Colton Cross belted a three-run, two-out homer off the scoreboard to cut the margin to one, bringing the Ringgold fans to life.
Chester lifted Dittmer and brought in hard-throwing Levi Mauldin to face cleanup hitter Caleb Jones, who violently fouled a 1-0 fastball straight back before Mauldin rallied to strike him out on a high 2-2 fastball.
Cross was tagged with the loss despite allowing only five hits in going the distance. Four of those hits, however, were two homers and two doubles. The most damaging of the hits was Laine Frazier’s homer in the fifth that provided the final two ‘Canes runs. Cross, who struck out nine, hopes the Tigers found something late.
“I think at first we were in awe that we were playing Cartersville, but once we started playing we realized we could hang with them,” Cross said. “We just have to finish the season strong.”