Prep Baseball
East Coweta holds off Whitewater's rally attempt
by Staff Reports
East Coweta's baseball team stayed unbeaten Wednesday afternoon with a dramatic 7-5 victory over Whitewater in a non-region contest on the road in Fayetteville.
They can thank pitcher Cole Amtmann for picking up the save and pitching the Indians out of a seventh-inning jam.
The victory pushed the Indians' record to 8-0 after having Monday's scheduled home game against Luella halted by severe weather three batters into the top of the first.
Amtmann, a starter for the Indians, came into the game from right field in the last inning and squelched a Wildcat rally to give teammate Zach McCurry a victory.
McCurry went 6 2/3 innings, breezing through the first five while striking out eight and walking none before getting into trouble in the sixth.
Down 7-2 in its final at bat, Whitewater scored three runs in and had the tying runner at first when Amtmann ended the game with a strikeout.
East Coweta took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning, starting with a successful squeeze bunt from catcher Blake Lorow to score Jon Banks who reached on an error.
Shortstop Travis Williams followed with an RBI single to score fellow senior Geremy Walton, who had the Indians first hit of the inning.
East Coweta was outhit 12-8 by the Wildcats but scored the first seven runs of the game, five of which came in the fifth on five hits.
Three consecutive one-out hits got things started for the Indians beginning with Tim Manning's RBI triple to score Williams, who walked. Manning was immediately on the move on leadoff hitter Cam Smith's RBI single to make it 4-0.
Bryce Gemmel followed with a base hit and one batter later Banks and Walton followed with consecutive RBI singles to make it 7-0.
Smith and Walton each had two hits and an RBI for the Indians.
Jon Banks fished 2-for-3 for the Indians and also drove in two runs.
Smith, Blake Lorow, Travis Williams and Manning added RBIs.
East Coweta plays Hillgrove on Friday at home in its last non-region game before entering the region half of the schedule.
This year, teams in Region 3-AAAAAA will play a weekly three-game series against each league opponent with alternating home games.
Region play begins with Langston Hughes traveling to East Coweta on Tuesday. The series concludes with games at Hughes on Thursday and back at ECHS on Friday.
Newnan travels to Lovejoy for a non-region game today before beginning its opening 3-AAAAAA series with Douglas County on Tuesday.
The Cougars had Monday's game at Pike County halted early due to storms.
