Sports

East Marietta Crushes Walton, 11-1

The East Cobb team extends its unbeaten postseason with a win to start the state Little League tournament.

CARTERSVILLE—The East Marietta National Little League Giants continued their postseason dominance today, cruising to an 11-1 win over Walton County in both teams’ first game of the state tournament.

Jason Rooks, the MVP of the District 2 championship game when he , played the part of offensive hero today while four of his teammates handled the pitching.

Rooks was 3-for-3 with two home runs and five RBI.

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Rooks’ first home run immediately followed leadoff hitter Noah Cole’s homer to give the Giants a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning before Walton pitcher Cason Brown recorded an out.

Rooks’ two-run single in the second followed Cole’s RBI double during a five-run inning against reliever Caleb Humphrey. The Giants drew three of their six walks during that inning.

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Rooks’ towering, no-doubt homer in the third inning brought home Tripp Ivie, who had walked. Joey Brinsmaid scored on a throwing error by the catcher earlier in Rooks’ at-bat; otherwise, it would have been a three-run homer.

East Marietta closed out the scoring and the game under the 10-run mercy rule with two runs in the bottom of fourth inning.

MJ Sasapan scored on Jordan Phillips’ sharp single, then Gabe Magerkurth recorded the game-ending run on a bases-loaded, two-out infield single by Cole.

East Marietta pounded out nine hits in the four innings off five pitchers from Walton County, the District 10 champion.

That was plenty of offense to back starting pitcher Cole and relievers Magerkurth, Jack Hardin and Jason Avers. Each pitcher worked on a 20-pitch limit to maximize his chances to pitch later in the Little League Baseball Georgia State Championship Tournament.

The quartet limited Walton County to three hits and a walk and recorded six strikeouts. The only run was unearned, scoring on a dropped fly ball with two outs in the second inning.

And East Marietta didn’t have to use its ace, Rooks.

East Marietta is tied for first in Pool A with Columbus American, which beat host Cartersville, 10-3, in the tournament’s opening game today. Masters City from Augusta had Saturday off.

By the end of pool play Wednesday at Joe Frank Harris Field, all five teams will have played one another, and the top two teams will advance to Thursday’s semifinals against the top two from Pool B.

East Marietta’s next game is Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Rudy York Field against Masters City.

Both fields are part of the complex at in northwest Cartersville. Admission to all games is free, but parking costs $5 per day or $20 for the tournament.


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