Heritage entered Tuesday night’s opening game of the season-ending Region 7-AAAA series against first-place Cedartown in dire need of a win.
The Generals (17-11, 10-6) came in tied with three other teams for second place but stood fifth in any tiebreaker scenario. Not to fear, coach Eric Beagles turned to ace Zach Barrett and he didn’t disappoint, limiting a potent Cedartown (19-8, 13-3) lineup to two hits and no earned runs in a 6-1 win.
“Zach had another excellent outing for us,” Beagles said. “He’s our most experienced pitcher and he really gave us a lift today. To limit a very good Cedartown team to only two hits is quite impressive. He battled through some adversity and got out of a couple of jams and, thankfully, we were able to make the most of our six hits.”
Gage Shaver had the big hit for Heritage with a three-run triple, while Barrett helped himself with two RBIs and leadoff man Cannon Stafford scored a pair of runs.
“Today means we took the first step we needed to take in order to control our own destiny in these last three games,” Beagles said.