Continuing their play against top competition, Cambridge squared off against 7A baseball power Etowah HS Friday night, February 21st at the Lakepoint Sports Complex.  Cambridge sent senior righty Casey Young to the mound for his second start of the season.  Coming off a solid win in their last outing, the Bears hoped to string another win together on the chilly evening.

 

Things got interesting in the top of the first for the visiting squad from Etowah.  A single, a sac bunt and a walk set the stage for Etowah.  A Cambridge error delivered the first run of the game before a double drove in a second run.  With runners at second and third and two outs, Young coaxed a ground ball to third, but the runner at third scored before the fielder's choice was completed and Etowah finished the top of the first with a 3-0 lead.

 

Cambridge struck right back in the bottom of the inning.  Jayden Carbonell-Smith took the first pitch he saw and laced a double into the left field corner.  Carbonell-Smith took third on a wild pitch, then scored on an RBI groundout by Ryan Todd.  The rally ended there with a 3-1 Etowah lead after one.

 

Young settled in after the tricky first.  Etowah went in order in each of the second through fifth innings.  Meanwhile, the Cambridge offense continued to threaten.  A Nicholas Armstrong single and an RBI groundout by Will Paulus closed the gap to 3-2 after two.  But the Bears offense bogged down a bit after that, stranding runners in the third and fourth without scoring.

 

That would change in the fifth.  Todd got things going with a one-out single.  Jackson Woods came through in a big way with a clutch single to left, scoring Todd from second to tie the score at 3.  Matt Faby continued the rally with a soft liner single to left.  Armstrong came to the plate and lofted a perfectly placed single to left center to drive in Woods for the 4-3 lead.

 

Young came back out for the sixth and surrendered a two-out hit for the first hit allowed since the opening inning.  However, he closed out the sixth in spectacular fashion, bare-handing a perfectly placed bunt down the third base line and making an acrobatic throw to first to beat the runner by a half step.  Zach Harris then entered the game in relief of Young in the seventh and worked around a leadoff single to close out the game and the 4-3 victory for the Bears.

 

The Bears won this game in all phases, hitting, pitching and defense.  Armstrong led the way with a pair of hits, an RBI and a run scored.  Paulus, Todd and Woods all had big RBI.  Young secured his first win of the season, going six innings, allowing three hits and one earned run.  Harris pitched a scoreless inning to secure his second save of the season in as many tries.

 

Cambridge picks right back up with a pair of games on Saturday, February 22nd at the Lakepoint Sports Complex.  Game one is at noon versus Tattnall Square Academy and game two is at 5 PM versus Cairo HS.

 

Go Bears!