TUNNEL HILL, Ga. — Another season, another playoff appearance for the Heritage High School baseball team — though this time with a new front man.
The Generals (19-7, 11-2) defeated Northwest Whitfield 8-4 Monday night in the first of a three-game series to end the regular season. The win clinches the Region 7-AAAA championship and the No. 1 seed that goes with it for the start of next week's state playoffs.
The title is also a first for the program's first-year coach, David Dinger, who replaced Eric Beagles following last season. Beagles had led the program since its inception 16 years ago and took the Generals to eight consecutive playoff appearances.
Monday's clincher wasn't as close as the final score indicated after Heritage took an 8-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh before the Bruins (18-7, 8-5) rallied to make the visitors a bit nervous.
"We had to make it exciting, I guess," smiled Dinger, who coached baseball at his alma mater, Lookout Valley, for 23 seasons. "I'm happy for these kids. This region is so tight this year. There's not a team like Cedartown has been in the past, but there is a lot of depth. Somebody is going to stay home for the playoffs that's a really good team."
Senior right-hander Max Owens was dominating for the first six innings, allowing two hits and striking out eight. He did not allow a runner past second base until the seventh.
"Max threw a heck of a game," Dinger said. "Max sat a long time in the top of the seventh inning, so that probably affected him some. He commanded the fastball and he was able to get the breaking ball over. When you can do those two things you're going to win a lot of baseball games."
Heritage managed just eight hits, three from Brady Chandler, but was the beneficiary of 10 walks. Five of those free passes came in the seventh inning when Heritage scored three runs without a hit.
"I thought we did really well with pitch selection tonight," said Dinger, who was an assistant coach under Beagles last year. "It's something we struggled with last week, so that's nice to see. It's funny that in the third inning we hit three rockets and had nothing to show for it, so the walk was better for us tonight than the hard-hit balls."
The Generals took a 2-0 lead in the second inning off Northwest ace Sam Crossen when Maddox Henry roped a two-out, two-run single to left field. They added two runs in the fourth, aided by a pair of errors, and a single run in the sixth on Chandler's RBI single.
The Bruins, after the lengthy top of the inning, started the bottom half with singles by Deacon Edwards and Hank Harrison and a walk to pinch-hitter Caden Ramsey. Owens briefly righted the ship with a strikeout, but then gave up a run-scoring single to Eli Speights, with a second run scoring on an outfield error.
That ended Owens' night, but Northwest wasn't finished. Hank Scruggs greeted reliever Cohen Fletcher with an RBI single and, after a flyout, Gavin Nuckolls singled to bring the tying run to the on-deck circle.
Dinger, not wanting the win and region title to slip away, brought in closer Ryland Black-Long, who ended the game by getting Trent Hixson to ground out.
The teams will play again Tuesday and Thursday, with Northwest possibly needing to win both to earn the No. 2 playoff seed.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.