Terrell Academy baseball sweeps Heritage of Newnan to advance to State championship series

DAWSON — Sixteen hits in game one and a complete game pitched by Tyler Loewe in game two helped the Terrell Academy Eagles (21-3) sweep a doubleheader from Heritage Academy on  Saturday in Dawson, 10-6 and 8-3. That means the Eagles advance to the state championship series later this week against region rival Valwood (18-12) , which took two of three games from John Milledge Academy to make it to the finals..

“I’m so proud of these guys,” Terrell Academy head coach Ashley Walker said. “We challenged them all week to prepare and they did exactly what we asked from studying the scouting report and executing across the board! It was a great day to be an Eagle!”

The Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning with two-out singles by Kade Muliford and Tyler Loewe. Dozier Swain belted a two-run home run over the left field fence in the third inning to make it 4-0 before the Eagles exploded for six runs in the fourth to lead 10-1.

Heritage built a serious threat in the fourth and loaded the bases with no outs on a single and two hit batters, but Walker brought lefty Trevor Shipley to the mound. Shipley struck-out the first batter, gave up a sacrifice fly for the one run and then struck-out the third batter to end the threat.

The Hawks tried to rally late and scored three in the sixth and two in the seventh, but Quindon Wright struck out two batters in the seventh and got a pop fly to end the game.

“We got really hot offensively in the first game and put some really competitive at bats together and it worked in our favor for sure!” Walker said. “In game one, we mixed our pitching strategy up and it worked great, all three guys did a great job on the mound. We got a little selfish on the bases in the first game and it cost us valuable pitches. If we run the bases like we are supposed to, I feel like we could have run ruled them in game one with the way we were swinging the bats.”

The Eagles put together 16 hits in the first game. Muliford was 4-4 at the plate with three RBIs to lead the Eagles and Loewe knocked in two runs on three hits. Swain knocked in two with that third inning home run. Daylor Drawdy and David Kile also had two hits each for the winners.

Heritage took a 2-1 lead against Loewe and the Eagles in game two with a two-run home run in the first inning, but Loewe delivered at the plate in the third with a double to center to score Swain followed by a single to left by John Mark Irvin that gave the Eagles a 3-2 lead.  Loewe smacked a home run over the left field fence in the seventh, and two more Eagles scored on an error on a pop fly hit by Kile.

Loewe pitched seven innings and gave up five hits and two earned runs. He walked one and struck out nine. He also led at the plate with two hits in four at-bats with two RBIs. Irvin also had two hits for the Eagles.

“In game two we knew we were going to have to work to win that game,” Walker said. “Tyler did a great job of challenging Heritage’s hitters and he pounded the zone with every pitch in his arsenal. We had to keep putting the pressure on them to make plays and we were able to steal some runs on some errors. Tyler was lights out and our defense only committed 3 errors on the day and that helped get him and the rest of our pitchers comfortable on the mound.”

The Eagles will now prepare for Valwood, which won both games the two teams played this season. Game one of the three game series begins at 10 a.m. Thursday at Luther Williams Field in Macon. Game two is set for 4 p.m. Friday, and if game three is needed, it will be played Saturday.

By Joe Whitfield
Sports EditorJoeWhitfield[email protected]
By Joe Whitfield
Sports EditorJoeWhitfield[email protected]