TUNNEL HILL, Ga. – Patience isn’t a word usually associated with the Northwest Whitfield High School baseball team, but Tuesday’s quick start in the much-delayed third game of its GHSA Class AAAA first-round series showed a different side.
The Bruins scored seven first-inning runs in the 11-1 win over Grady — against a pitcher that held them to one run in last week’s series-opening loss. The Bruins now will host Stephens County on Thursday in a doubleheader start to a best-of-three series.
Northwest (23-6) rapped out seven hits — six of them singles — against Grady starter Liam Henry, whose soft sidearm tosses tied the aggressive Bruins hitters into knots in the first meeting. Tuesday the team let the ball get a little farther before swinging.
“We had the same approach going into game one, but we just didn’t execute it,” Northwest coach Todd Middleton said. “We swung way out in front and popped up a lot in that first game. Today we waited on the ball a bit better, at least at the start of the game. We got back into the bad habit in the middle innings.”
Relegated to being the visitors after a pregame coin toss, the Bruins had consecutive singles from Brandon Smith, Brady Middleton and Diego Peralta to load the bases in the first inning. Henry, clearly rattled, then hit Edwin Hernandez and A.J. Orozco with pitches for the first two runs before Seth Pierce and Kyle Brock singled in runs and Andy Whisenant plated two with a double.