Playing in a tough bracket, the Barracudas baseball team finished 1-2-1 at the Georgia State baseball tournament last weekend in Cummings.
The Barracudas started pool play with a 7-4 loss to PSA Team Rawlings. According to Barracudas coach Chris Bell, Kyle Hill tossed six good innings keeping the batters off balance and his defense did the rest. The game was knotted at four going into the seventh inning.
After Bell changed pitchers, the defense dropped the ball on a routine play with the bases loaded, which allowed two Team Rawlings base runners to score. Rawlings scored another run off a passed ball.
Bell said his team threatened on offense but couldn’t push runners across the plate.
The Barracudas gathered their equipment and drove down the road to the next ball field for game two against Georgia Select. Bell said Evan Crystal pitched a complete game allowing only four runs. The Barracudas defense held strong, but Bell said they struggled again at the plate as the game ended in a 4-all tie.
“Our situational hitting was almost non-existent,” he said.
The Barracudas finished pool play with a 5-3 win over the East Cobb Indians. Bell said they still struggled at bat, but starting pitcher Darrius Tilghman pitched six strong innings, and Parker Neely closed out the game in the seventh.
That made the Barracudas the 14th seed in the elite gold bracket and pitted them against the third seed, The Cherokee Fury, in a single-elimination game. Bell said his defense struggled again with five errors en route to a 13-5 loss.
“We have to play better than this going forward,” Bell said. “We have got to be able to move runners around the bases. Our pitching has been a bright spot for the most part. We have had some great performances to this point. Another bright spot has been our catching. Hunter Miller and Jermaine Davila have done an excellent job of holding runners. Looking back over the last two tournaments, we have thrown out 64 percent of attempted base stealers. That is a phenomenal success rate on their part.”
The Barracudas will return to Cummings for a tournament June 21.