Area Roundup: HR power surge for Northwest

Published 10:46 pm Sunday, September 11, 2011

Northwest Whitfield softball powered its way to a third-place finish in the gold bracket at the Cherokee Invitational this weekend.

The Lady Bruins (13-4), ranked ninth in the most recent Ga.PrepCounty Class 4A coaches poll, homered nine times in five games at the tournament, with Macy Weeks accounting for four of the shots and Bayli Cruse slugging three.

Karlie Henson and Mykeah Johnson also homered for the Lady Bruins.

Northwest picked up Friday night victories against Mill Creek, 14-3, and Woodstock, 5-1. On Saturday, they beat Gilmer 6-3 and Eastside 11-0, but lost 6-4 in 11 innings to Gordon Lee, which lost to Whitewater in the championship game.

“Offensively, that’s the best we’ve played in three years,” Northwest coach Shane Ramsey said. “We had 17 hits against Mill Creek, which is the No. 2-ranked in 5A. It was a great weekend for us. We wanted to build some momentum for the end of the season, and we kind of target this tournament, because we tend to play well after it. Since I’ve been head coach, this is the best we’ve played at a tournament.”

Emily Boyd pitched for three of the four victories, while Brileigh Baggett was the winner against Eastside, allowing three hits while striking out five in six innings pitched. Boyd finished the weekend with 27 strikeouts and allowed 19 hits in 27 innings of work.

“It’s a nice luxury,” Ramsey said, “to have two pitchers who can come in and give us a chance to win.”

Other offensive highlights included two-hit efforts by Colbie Thomas, McKinley Poteet and Johnson against Woodstock; two-hit efforts by Johnson, Cruse and Weeks against Gilmer, a game in which all of the runs came off that trio’s homers; a 2-for-3, three-RBI performance by Henson against Eastside; and Cruse going 2-for-4 with two RBIs against Gordon Lee.

• Dalton went 2-4 at Adairsville’s Tiger Town Invitational to fall to 8-10 overall this season.

On Friday, the Lady Catamounts opened with a 6-5 loss to Rockmart, but bounced back for a 9-2 win against Pace Academy that was shortened to four innings by the tournament’s time limit. On Saturday, they lost 3-2 to North Murray, 4-1 to North Cobb Christian and 8-3 to Rockmart, but won 3-2 against Chattooga.

For the weekend, Chandler McKinney led Dalton at the plate, going 11-for-19. Carson Hagin was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI against Pace, while Allie Blackwood had a two-run homer against Chattooga.

Blackwood, who struck out 16 in 15 innings of work during the tourney, also picked up both wins inside the circle against Pace and Chattooga. She allowed three hits in each of those games.