Dalton hits dead end

Published 11:53 pm Saturday, May 9, 2009

In the end, the wild beginning of Saturday’s Class 4A state baseball tournament showdown between Dalton and Winder-Barrow didn’t matter much at all.

Winder-Barrow, the No. 4 seed from Region 8-4A, scored three sixth-inning runs off Dalton ace Alex Roberts and ended the Catamounts’ bid for a state championship with an 8-5 victory.

The Bulldoggs won the best-of-three series 2-1 and advanced to the second round against Starr’s Mill, which swept Chamblee 5-3 and 12-4.

Dalton, the Region 7-4A champion, ends its season at 22-6, losing the final two games after running off 19 straight victories, including an 11-10 win over the Bulldoggs on Friday in the series opener.

“We had a great season but we sure wanted it to end differently,” said Cats senior third baseman Carter Crutchfield, who drove in two runs with a groundout and single. “This is really disappointing. We won the region by going undefeated and we had high expectations. But in the playoffs, you’ve got to play your best or you lose. We didn’t bring our A game and they did.”

In 2008, Heritage-Rockdale, another Region 8-A squad, ended Dalton’s second in the second round of the state playoffs.

With the game tied at 5, Roberts walked Bulldoggs leadoff batter Max Pentecost to start the sixth inning (Winder-Barrow was the home team). Christian Davila sacrificed Pentecost to second and then Roberts walked slugger Jeremy McDonald — it was McDonald’s fourth walk, third intentionally. And with good reason. He slammed four home runs and drove in eight runs in Friday’s doubleheader.

After McDonald walked, Roberts wild pitched both runners up a base.

Dustin Dunagan’s high-bouncer went over Crutchfield’s head to drive in the go-ahead run, starting pitcher Clint Spratlin’s single scored McDonald and Kevin Wolf’s grounded pushed the third run across.

Dunagan, the Game 2 winner, came on in relief of Spratlin in the fifth and limited the Cats to three hits while striking out five. Combined, Spratlin and Dunagan struck out 10, nine on called third strikes.

“Dustin has answered every time we’ve called on him,” Winder-Barrow coach Brian Smith said after the game, barely able to control his emotions. “He’s thrown nine complete games this season.”

However, Spratlin was the key to the Bulldoggs’ win.

After giving up six hits and four runs in the first inning, Spratlin allowed only other hit and one more run until Dunagan relieved him.

“He started off shaky,” Smith said of Spratlin. “But when he’s going good, he’s a good pitcher. It felt great to see him get in a groove and get in as many innings as he did. That was our plan, get Spratlin through five innings and bring Dunagan in to finish up.”

Dalton jumped all over the left-handed Spratlin in the first inning after the game was delayed 50 minutes starting due to standing water in the outfield.

Stryker Brown and Toombs Norman singled and Garren Palmer ripped a double off the wall to score Brown. Norman went to third. Crutchfield’s groundout scored Norman and Blake Raber’s hit sent Will Kiker, running for Palmer, across the plate.

“Our kids accepted the challenge,” Dalton coach Bobby Brotherton said, “with those four quick runs there. But in this game, you have to play seven innings.”

The lead didn’t last long though.

Spratlin helped himself with a two-run single and Wolf smacked a two-run homer, the Bulldoggs’ eighth in the series, to tie the game against Dalton starter John Erwin. Wolf went 5-for-11 with six RBIs and scored three times in the series.

“After that first inning, we were thinking it would be a 21-20 game,” Smith said. “But our guy settled down and so did theirs. I tell you, our guys have a lot of fight in them and we had to overcome our third heartbreaking injury (first baseman Taylor Hinshaw broke a finger on his glove hand on Friday).

“Role players stepped up this season and everyone kind of played over their heads. I’m just overwhelmed.”

Erwin escaped the second inning without allowing a run, despite yielding five base runners. In the third, Winder-Barrow (20-8) got one run on Josh Ellerbee’s single. In two appearances against the Bulldoggs, Erwin was roughed up for 11 runs — two were unearned as a result three errors — and 12 hits.

Trailing 5-4, Norman reached on an error starting the fifth inning. Spratlin hit Palmer and Dunagan came on to face Beau Blackwood, who took a called third strike. Crutchfield’s single scored Norman from third with the game-tying run.

Dunagan retired the Cats in order in the sixth. With two out in the seventh, Blackwood singled to right before Dunagan retired Crutchfield on a fly-ball out to right to end the game.

Finally, Smith could breathe.

“Our region is pretty tough,” Smith said. “We’ve faced Division I pitchers all over the plate and that club over there (Dalton) has good pitching. And they’re a better hitting team than anyone in our region.”

In the three games, Dalton banged out 27 hits and scored 19 runs. The Bulldoggs had 35 hits and 31 runs.

“They’re a good ballclub,” Crutchfield said of Winder-Barrow. “But I just don’t think we played our best baseball.”