CALHOUN, Ga. — Maybe the worst thing Chris Little could do was wake up the slumbering Calhoun bats.
While Little’s sixth-inning solo home run tied Tuesday’s Region 7-AA baseball game for Dade County, it also lit a fire for the powerful Yellow Jackets lineup. Calhoun scored 10 runs in the bottom of the inning for an 11-1 win.
“We had a big win last night against top-ranked Blessed Trinity, and, not to take anything away from Dade County, but we didn’t come out like we should today,” Calhoun coach Chip Henderson said after his team improved to 8-0, 6-0 in the region. “Their pitcher (Brandon Smith) did a great job of keeping us off balance, but we were able to get some guys on and got a couple of big hits.”
The first big hit came from pinch-hitter Trent Frix, whose two-run single untied the game. Two batters later Tyler King, subbing for regular first baseman Jordan Poole, laced a grand slam over the fence in left center field. Three pitchers, three errors, two walks and a balk later, the game was over.
“I was looking for a pitch middle away, and though it was a little high, it was in my power zone,” King said of his first homer of the season. “We just wanted to get some baserunners and it would take care of itself. We were struggling some, but we got it done.”
The first five innings were a pitchers’ battle between Dade’s Smith and Calhoun’s Christian Holden, who was making his first start of the season. Holden, who struck out seven and allowed five hits, impressed his coach.
“Christian did a great job,” said Henderson, whose team has a deep rotation featuring Carter Harrison, Landon Curtis and Austin Norrell. “We might need another arm when we get to the postseason, and he looked good today.”
The postseason is still on the Jackets’ minds after they fell abruptly last year to unranked Dublin in the second round. Henderson hopes lessons learned early in the season will be beneficial later on.
“We’re not where we need to be. Can we develop that? Sure we can, but we have to stay on that even keel and do it every night,” he said. “You can’t have bad days once you get to the postseason, and that’s what we have to avoid. We didn’t come out ready to play today, and I hope they learned from that. Still, to get a region win is big. You can’t argue with that.”
Curtis had two hits and two RBIs to go with King’s four runs batted in and Frix’s two.