ADEL, Ga. — The thunder cracked at Bruce Long Memorial Field on Tuesday, and that was before the heat-fed thunderstorms hit.
Calhoun belted three home runs and added three doubles to win the GHSA Class AA baseball championship with a dominating 8-2 win over top-ranked Cook County. That follows the Yellow Jackets’ Class A state title in 2000 and their first AA title in 2005.
“I guess we’re on the five-year plan,” said coach Chip Henderson, whose team lost 6-1 to the Hornets on Monday before rallying for a 4-3 win to force Tuesday’s deciding game. “We did exactly what we hoped to do — grab an early lead, establish it and take control of the game. We hit the ball well and we got a strong pitching performance.”
The Yellow Jackets (35-1) wasted little time jumping on Cook starter Palmer Betts. Michael Johnson’s one-out double was followed one out later by senior Jordan Poole’s monstrous homer to right-center. The early runs quieted a standing-room-only Cook crowd and settled down Calhoun starting pitcher Landon Curtis, who had not started a game in the postseason.
“Getting those early runs made my job a lot easier,” said the junior right-hander, who limited the high-scoring Hornets to two runs and six hits in five innings of work. “I wasn’t sure how I would come out, not having pitched, but I guess my arm was fresh.”
Curtis and Betts battled out of jams in the next three innings before the Hornets got on the board on Betts’ solo homer in the fourth. Calhoun responded with two runs in the fifth on Monday hero Zach Bradley’s two-out, two-run double, runs that proved huge when Cook (31-5) got an RBI single from Kaleb Cowart in its next at-bat. Curtis escaped further trouble when Calhoun second baseman Michael Johnson made a diving stop on a ball in the hole and threw Parker Nix out at first.
GHSA Class AA ChampionshipCALHOUN 8, COOK 2Calhoun 200 023 1 — 8 8 1Cook 000 110 0 — 2 8 0WP: Landon Curtis, 5 IP, 2 runs, 7 Ks. LP: Palmer Betts. HR: Jordan Poole, Carter Harrison, Zach Bradley (Ca); Betts (Co). 2B: Michael Johnson, Josh Schubert, Bradley (Ca); D.J. Johnson (Co). Other highlights: Bradley 2-4, 3 RBIs; Harrison 2-4, 3 RBIs, 2 runs; Poole 1-3, 2 RBIs (Ca); Johnson 4-4, run; Kaleb Cowart 2-4, RBI (Co). Records: Calhoun 35-1; Cook 31-5.
“We made some big plays in the field, but that was the biggest,” Henderson said. “Landon was tiring a bit, but I wanted to see if he could get through that inning.”
Calhoun rewarded Curtis with three more runs in the sixth when senior Carter Harrison greeted Cook reliever D.J. Johnson with a three-run homer to left. Johnson had handed Calhoun and Harrison their first defeats on Monday.
“I faced him twice Monday and he got me on curveballs, so I was sitting on it and he hung one to me,” said Harrison, one of four seniors who were part of the 2006 state-runner-up squad. “It’s a great feeling to go out this way. We could have hung our heads after losing yesterday, but it just made us come out stronger.”
Following a 45-minute rain delay, Harrison took over. He retired Cook in order in the sixth, and with runners on third and second in the seventh he got cleanup hitter Tyler Norton to fly to right field for the final out.
“What a great feeling to go out a champion,” said Bradley, whose three-run homer won Game 2 and who added a solo shot in the seventh inning Tuesday. “This is an amazing team.”