The large amount of rain that has made scheduling high school baseball games in the Atlanta area a difficult proposition this spring forced a move of games to Emerson, GA on Friday, March 1st and Saturday morning, March 2nd.  Both of those games were against cross-town rival Milton, while an additional game was set for Saturday afternoon at Riverwood HS.

 

 

Milton scored twice in the first off of Cambridge starter Blake Renner.  A HBP and a couple of hits did the trick before Renner coaxed an inning ending double play.  The Bears threatened in the bottom of the inning with a Jared Spears single and a Ross Friedrick walk putting two in scoring position but could not push anything across.

 

Neither team threatened in innings two and three.  Milton, however, leveraged a couple of Cambridge errors to push across three more in the fourth.  The Bears loaded the bases in the fifth courtesy of singles by Grayson Dato, Matt Faby and Jackson Woods with one out, but again failed to push anything across.

 

Milton added an unearned run in the seventh off of reliever Nick Dato to make the final score 6-0.

 

Cambridge was limited to five hits on the evening with a Danny DeSousa double the only highlight.  Renner took the loss, going five innings and allowing one earned run with six strikeouts.

 

 

Both teams had to turn around quickly to play a 9:30 AM game at Lakepoint and the game generated more action than the previous evening's game.  Jared Spears took the mound and delivered a stellar performance for Cambridge.  And unlike the night before, the Bears offense struck early.  Danny DeSousa started things off with a double before walks to Cody Rech and Ross Friedrick loaded the bases.  Mitch Fleming then roped a double to left center, driving in two for a 2-0 Cambridge lead.

 

Spears cruised through two and his offense added to the lead in the third.  A two out single by Ryan Todd and a walk by Nicholas Armstrong set up Matt Faby, who delivered with a two run double to right and a 4-0 lead.  Milton pushed three uneared runs across in the bottom of the inning courtesy of two Cambridge errors.

 

Michael Polk entered the game in the fifth and tossed a couple of scoreless innings.  Down 4-3, Milton mounted a rally in the seventh.  Two more Cambidge errors pushed across the tying run before Milton won the game in the eighth courtesy of four walks for a 5-4 victory.

 

Cambridge outhit Milton seven to two on the game, but five costly Bears errors were too much to overcome, while Milton played flawless defense.  DeSousa, Faby and Fleming each had doubles, while the latter two also drove in a pair.  Armstrong took the loss.  Spears went four solid innings, allowing no earned runs on one hit with five strikeouts in four innings of work.  Polk went three innings, allowing no earned runs on a hit with four strikeouts.

 

 

Cambridge moved across town to play at Riverwood after the extra inning loss to Milton in the morning and sent Turner Rosenbaum to the mound.  Riverwood scored twice in each of the first two innings to jump out to a 4-0 lead.  Tommy Fester entered the game in the third and pitched very well, keeping the Riverwood bats off balance throughout.  

 

Jared Spears lined a double to left center for the only Bears hit of the game in the fourth, but was left stranded.  Riverwood pushed another run across in the bottom of the inning to close out the scoring and a 5-0 victory.

 

Spears provided the only offense with his fourth inning double.  Rosenbaum took the loss, while Fester pitched four strong innings, allowing a run on three hits with five strikeouts.

 

Cambridge plays next with a game Monday, March 4th at Roswell HS.  Game time is 5:55 PM.

 

Go Bears!