North Paulding holds off Marietta 3-2 in Game 1 of best of three region series
As the Georgia High School Association baseball season continues and teams begin getting deep into region matchups, the North Paulding Wolfpack hit the road to take on the Marietta Blue Devils to kick off their best of three region series, with the Blue Devils a game up on the Wolfpack in the region standings.
North Paulding would strike first as Collin Brightwell would start the game with a lead off triple off Marietta pitcher, James Lowe, and that would be followed up by an RBI single from Cade Cox as the Wolfpack took the early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
The Blue Devils would settle in defensively as Lowe would retire six of the eight batters faced in the second and third inning, striking out three North Paulding batters during that stretch. In the bottom of the third, Marietta would even the score after a one out, RBI single by Sam Sparger would tie the game 1-1.
In the top of the fourth inning, the Wolfpack would tack on two more runs courtesy of a Bryce Davis solo home run and a RBI single by Brightwell later in the inning, which would give them a 3-1 lead, however, in the bottom of the frame, Lowe would hit a solo homerun to bring the Blue Devils back within one point as they trailed 3-2.
Keeping the North Paulding bats at bay in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, Marietta would have one last chance in the bottom of the seventh inning but unfortunately would not be able to take advantage of having runners on base as they lost 3-2.
"We're just building that momentum and trying to keep it hot," North Paulding head coach, Matt Richardson said following North Paulding's win, which gave them their second straight win and helped them move into fourth place in the region standings. "It was a great job, our guys showed some toughness," Richardson added as he praised his players for their efforts to pull out Tuesday's win.
And while the Wolfpack's win over Marietta was a good start to their series, Richardson believes "energy" will be important for North Paulding to finish the series strong and keep momentum behind them down the stretch of the regular season, especially when finding them selves in close games.
"We had a lead in every single game against Walton but for some reason we couldn't finish, but our last two games we finished so we're going to take that momentum and continue," Richardson added.
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