DALTON, Ga. - There are few advantages in being the visiting team on your own baseball field, but the Dalton Catamounts took advantage of it Thursday to advance to the GHSA Class AAAAA Elite Eight.
After losing home-field advantage in the pregame coin flip, Dalton scored five runs in the top of the first inning, then stretched the lead late to ease past Evans, 11-3, in game three of the second-round series. The Catamounts (23-7) advance to play at Gainesville in a best-of-three series beginning Tuesday.
"It's always good to jump out early like that," Dalton coach Rhett Parrott said. "It helps your pitcher relax a bit. We took advantage of that opportunity at home. It was a little odd being the visitors twice at home in one series, but we were able to get out to that early lead and put some pressure on them."
Evans starting pitcher Ben Adkins did not record an out. A hit batter and an error preceded Cole Shelton's RBI single for a 1-0 lead. Brock Nelson followed with a run-scoring single and Harrison Norman plated two runs with a double before Sam Stepp ended the outburst with a sacrifice fly off reliever Jordan Ibara.
"The quick start was good and it really shocked them," said Norman, who had four of Dalton's 15 hits. "We just had better at-bats today. We only had four hits in the second game yesterday, and today we didn't swing at bad pitches."
Shelton made it 6-0 with a solo homer against a stiff wind off the right-field light pole in the second inning, but Evans scored twice in the bottom half as pitcher Nelson struggled with control. He hit a batter and walked two before consecutive RBI singles by Hunter Rachels and Austin Gobel cut into the lead with one out.
However, No. 3 hitter Austin Shead hit a hard grounder to second that the Cats swiftly turned into an inning-ending double play. The big inning averted, Nelson soon found his groove, allowing only three baserunners in the next four innings.
"Brock wasn't missing by much, but the umpire was very consistent and was not giving him that pitch up," said Parrott, a former professional pitcher. "Brock had to adjust and he did, and once he got comfortable he did the job."
As did Evans' Ibara, who pitched through six baserunners in the third, fourth and fifth innings to keep the Knights in the game. That changed, however, in the sixth when Dalton worked some two-out magic.
Norman started that rally with a single, with J.P. Tighe adding a double before Stepp scored two with a single. Three batters later, Vinny Vega brought home two more with a single to left.
"I came in and told the team before the sixth inning that if we could score a few runs it would put them away," Norman said. "This means a lot to us. I think it's been over 10 years since a team from Dalton made the Elite Eight, so this is really crazy."
Shelton, Nelson and Stepp added two hits each for Dalton, which will now prepare for perennial power Gainesville.
"We're excited about it, to keep playing," Parrott said. "I know Gainesville is a good ball team that's been there a lot. We're going to face a good team on the road, so we know we need to be ready."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22