Glenn and West Forsyth ride hot streaks into CPC baseball title game
They may have been the four-seed, but over the past few weeks, Glenn has been one of the hottest teams in the state.
The Bobcats made their tenth consecutive victory their biggest of the season as they upset top-seeded Reagan 7-6 to secure a spot in the Central Piedmont Conference Tournament championship game.
Four runs in the first inning against Josh Lobs set the tone. Every time the Raiders tried to rally back, Glenn had an answer.
Reagan managed to score two runs in the first and one in the second to make it one run game.
The Bobcats were not phased.
Tyler Smith scored on a wild pitch, and Brayden Winters came home on a fielder's choice to post a crooked number in the fourth. Smith doubled in a fifth inning run to push the lead to 7-3.
The Raiders got into the Bobcat bullpen in the sixth, and did all that it could to rally from behind. Smith entered in relief with two outs and the tying run on base in the bottom of the sixth, and danced out of danger.
The lefty allowed a run in the seventh, but stranded the tying run in scoring position to nail down the save and secure the 7-6 victory.
Kale Woolard turned in five strong innings with six hits and a pair of strikeouts. Chase Gora doubled twice and plated two runs in the first.
Cole Rice was a bright spot for Reagan with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief. Graham Wagoner manged the drive in three for the Raiders who enter the playoffs 20-4 overall.
The league's hottest team will have the task of cooling down the CPC's hottest bats.
West Forsyth continued to roll with an 11-1 win over Mount Tabor in five innings.
Through the opening two rounds of the tournament, the Titans have only played eight innings and are outscoring their opponents 26-1.
Right away, West Forsyth set the tone.
Parker Trexler doubled to left to bring home two, and Lucas Alderman traded places with him a batter later. Garrett Secrist capped off a four-run first with a RBI single to right.
Mount Tabor got a run back in the third, but the 4-1 score was short-lived. Secrist singled home Alderman for a second time, and watched Brayden Seeley score on an error to push the lead to 6-1.
Four more runs in the fourth put a bow on the victory.
Alderman and Luis Acevedo drove in runs via sacrifice fly, Seeley drove in Trexler with a single, then crossed on a wild pitch.
Leading by double digits, Jack Vest finished what he started on the mound.
The senior tossed a shutdown fifth to end the game. He allowed only one hit, and struck out eight.
Four different Titans managed to contribute multi-hit games in the victory.
The championship game will be played on Thursday evening at East Forsyth.
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