Historic win for North Murray boys

Published 11:52 pm Friday, April 22, 2011

As a general rule, No. 4 seeds don’t beat No. 1 seeds in state tournaments. And teams that are making their first-ever appearance in a state tournament don’t often cope well with the pressure of playing on the road.

Don’t tell that to North Murray’s boys tennis team.

The Mountaineers dominated their Class 2A first-round match at Heard County on Friday, routing the Region 5 champions 4-1 in an impressive showing.

North Murray (9-6), which became the first sports team at the second-year school to win a state contest, advances to take on tennis power Lovett in the second round.

Lovett, a No. 3 seed from Region 6, beat Region 8 runner-up Jefferson in the first round, 3-1.

In singles, North Murray No. 1 Drew Mosteller led North Murray with a 6-1, 6-1 win to set the tone against Heard County. The Mountaineers also got a singles win from No. 2 Dylan Davis, 6-1, 6-2, and swept doubles.

There, No. 1 Alex Ellis and Jacob Ledford won 6-1, 6-4, while No. 2 Wesley Ross and Mark Lents bounced  from a 6-2 loss in their opening set with a pair of 6-3 wins in the final two sets.

Track and field

• On the first day of the Region 7-4A boys track and field meet at Woodland-Bartow, Northwest Whitfield athletes jumped long and vaulted high.

Jonathan Willman leaped 20 feet, 8 inches to take first place in the long jump, and Luke Woodason was first in the pole vault, clearing 12-6. With their wins, both qualified for the Class 4A state meet on May 5-7 in Jefferson. The top two finishers in each event advance to state.

Bruins coach Jason Jackson expected Woodason to qualify for state, but he was pleasantly surprised by Willman’s big leap.

“I was expecting him to be in the top three, but I knew he had a chance if he had a great day,” Jackson said. “I was just glad that he came out in the mindset that he was going to win.”

The meet will conclude on Monday at Woodland. Woodason and Colter Creswell each advanced to the 110 and 300 hurdles finals, set for Monday. Northwest also qualified its 4X400 relay team and 4X100 team for the final day.

“It was definitely a surprise today,” Jackson said of the success of his team. “We came out and competed well and have a little momentum headed into Monday.”

Baseball

• Dalton 8, Pickens 1: The season hasn’t gone exactly according to plan for Dalton High’s baseball team, but the Catamounts are hoping to end in a flourish.

Against the visiting Dragons in a Region 7-3A matchup, underclassmen led the way for coach Bobby Brotherton, who has tried to give some of his younger players more time in the varsity lineup. It paid off as freshman Grant Sane blasted a 1-2 fastball over the fence for a grand slam in the fifth inning.

That was more than enough for sophomore pitcher Brandon Dale, who struck out a season-high 10 batters and gave up just five hits in the game.

“I didn’t know it when I hit it, but it was a little inside and I got around on it,” said Sane, who cracked his first varsity dinger and finished the night 2-for-4. “We are playing for pride right now and we are trying to go out strong for our seniors and to build for next year.”

Dale will be a big part of that building. The right-hander gave up a leadoff homer in the first — “It was out quick, too,” Dale said with a laugh — but shut the Dragons down the rest of the way, giving up just five hits in the game.

While the Cats (11-12, 7-12) are out of the race for a playoff spot, they can have a big impact on the teams that are remaining. Dalton finishes with Gilmer, Ridgeland and Heritage-Catoosa. Gilmer and Heritage are ahead of Murray County in a battle for the region’s last state playoff spot.

“Whether we can get to state or not, we want to go 4-for-4 in our last four games,” Dale said. “We might not get to state, but we are going to make it tough for anyone else to get there.”

Carter Gillean was 3-for-4 at the plate to lead Dalton, while Will Kiker was 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored.

• Calhoun 7, North Murray 5: The Mountaineers scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh, but could not keep the rally going against the Yellow Jackets in a Sub-region 7B-2A game in Chatsworth.

North Murray (6-15, 2-8) trailed by six runs headed into its final turn at the plate against Calhoun, which is ranked No. 8 in the most recent Ga.PrepCountry.com Class 2A coaches baseball poll.

“I thought being down 7-1 was pretty good, honestly,” Mountaineers coach Steve Granger said. “But that’s been our story all year. We don’t give up. We continue to battle.”

The Jackets scored four runs in the fourth, aided by two walks by North Murray pitchers.

“Our downfall has been the one big inning,” Granger said.

Jared Goswick was 2-for-2 with a home run for the Mountaineers, and Robert Daly had a two-run single in the seventh.

• South Forsyth 11, Northwest Whitfield 1: Zach Sloan had a solo homer to account for the Bruins’ only run, and Josh Swinford gave up just two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of relief for Northwest (5-17, 3-13 Region 7-4A).