Published Saturday, March 02, 2013

Prep Baseball: Northgate wins region opener at Starr's Mill

From Staff Reports

sports@newnan.com

Northgate’s baseball team may have hated to see this week come to an end.

Riding a stellar 12-strikeout effort from senior right-hander Robert Massenberg, the visiting Vikings held off Starr’s Mill 3-2 in each team’s Region 4-AAAAA opener on Friday.

The win capped off three straight victories for Northgate over consecutive days while now taking a four-game win streak into Monday’s showdown at home with 4-AAAAA rival Whitewater.

Despite allowing six walks, Massenburg held the Panthers to just two hits on Friday against Starr’s Mill as Northgate (4-2, 1-0) jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three innings of play.

The Vikings struck for two runs in the second and added one in the third before Starr’s Mill (0-1, 0-1) pulled to within a run in the bottom of the fifth on Garrison Elliot’s two-run double. But that’s as far as the Panthers got on a chilly evening where both teams stranded seven baserunners.

Tyler Dahlberg, whose walk-off hit in a win over Woodward Academy on Wednesday started the week off strong, remained hot at the plate while going 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Chase Allen drove in both of Northgate’s runs in the first on a two-run double.

Jordan Schmidts went 2-for-3 and James Poropatic and Armond Upshaw also had singles for the Vikings, whose top six hitters went a combined 8-for-19 at the plate with all three runs and RBIs.

Starr’s Mill was victimized for a pair of unearned runs in the loss.