Gilmer High School baseball wrapped up its nonregion schedule last week.
Following their 11-1 win versus Southeast Whitfield Monday, the GHS Bobcats defeated Union County the following night at home, 5-4. Gilmer was back on its home field the next day, and it took eight innings for the Pickens Dragons to defeat GHS, 3-1.
“If we would have beat Pickens and were 6-1 right now, I told the players I would be proud of their effort so far in all the nonregion games,” head coach Jeff Thurman said. “Even though we lost, I’m just as proud after our successful nonregion schedule. I’m real happy of where we’re at.”
The first runs of the Union game came in the fourth inning where the Panthers plated two unearned runs.
GHS answered in the fifth when both Austin Zabala and Noah Gutillo walked. They both stole bases to advance into scoring position and came home when Branson Teague singled to left.
UCHS strung together two hits with two outs for its final run in the sixth. After he was intentionally walked, Zabala stole his way around to third once more. He came home on a balk to tie the score at 3-3.
A walk and error put two runners on base for GHS in the seventh. When Union’s center fielder could not catch a fly ball hit by Carter Jones cleanly, Seth Darling scored the winning run.
Darling also pitched the first four innings, struck out eight and walked two without allowing any hits. Jones tossed the final three innings to earn the win. He struck out one and walked one and allowed three hits.
GHS faced Pickens ace pitcher Connor Shouse, who has verbally committed to pitch at Georgia Tech. He pitched five innings, struck out 10, walked two and only gave up one hit.
“It was good for us to see that kind of an arm because we’re going to see more of it in the future when we get into region play,” Thurman said. “With (defending state champions) North Hall coming up, it’s not going to be an easy task. Our region from top to bottom is going to be pretty competitive.”
Pickens outhit Gilmer 10-4 on the night, but had little to show for it.
“We battled well against their No. 1 guy. We didn’t have a lot of offense, but we didn’t give them much either, which kept us in the game. It was one bounce away from it being in our favor,” Thurman said.
The bounce GHS did not get came in the sixth inning, which started with Pickens leading, 1-0. Gutillo grounded out with the bases loaded to tie the score. Ethan McCollum was then hit by a pitch to load the bases once more.
Jones was up next, and his swing caught the bottom half of the ball. It landed just in front of the plate, and appeared to spin back into the batter’s box. Pickens’ catcher fielded the ball and tagged Jones, who never left the box. The umpire deemed the ball was fielded in fair territory, and GHS was retired to the dugout.
A pair of one-out singles set the stage for Pickens in the eighth. A wild pitch moved both into scoring position, and they came home when Shouse doubled on a high fly ball to right field.
Gilmer got a runner on base in its half of the inning but was unable to cut into the Dragons’ lead.
GHS held Pickens in check most of the game thanks to solid defensive plays. In the fourth inning, Bryson Daniel made a siding grab in right field before doubling up the runner at second base. In the sixth, second baseman Eli Cooper made a leaping catch. On the ensuing play, a back-handed stop by Jones down the third base line ended the inning.
“Carter has played some third in the past but hasn’t played there a lot for us. He’s done a great job. Bryson has been really good in the outfield for us, and Eli made some good plays at second,” Thurman said.
Grant Cochran started the game for Gilmer and threw 79 pitches across four innings, struck out eight, walked two and gave up an earned run and six hits. Zabala pitched the final four innings and surrendered three hits, two earned runs and struck out one and walked two.
“It was promising to see Grant on the mound because he had a little soreness in his forearm. It was his second time on the mound this year, and it was his longest outing. He looked pretty sharp, and we’re really glad to see that,” Thurman said.
“We were proud of the effort all week with our wins over Southeast and Union.”
GHS is 5-2 overall and will begin region play this week versus North Hall. The two teams met at press deadline. GHS will travel to North Hall Wednesday, and game three will be played Friday in Ellijay. All games start at 5:55 p.m.