Etowah recovers to sweep North Paulding, claim Class 6A baseball title

After seeing his team squander chance after chance, Etowah’s Matthew Sharman wasn’t going to waste any opportunity to score. Standing on third base in the bottom of the sixth inning in a tie game, the senior had only one thought if the ball was put into play.

“I yelled out twice, ‘I’m going,’” Sharman said. “I love (third base coach Mike) Foley to death, but I wasn’t going to let him stop me. I told him, I don’t care where it’s hit, it could have been to the first baseman, but I’m going to go. I’m playing to win.”

So when Carson Moore hit a medium-depth fly ball to right field off reliever Jacob Krivanek, Sharman tagged up and raced home, easily sliding ahead of the throw to give the Eagles the go-ahead run they needed.

It turned out to be the decider in a 4-3 win over North Paulding on Wednesday at Gwinnett Field. The victory, coupled with Tuesday’s late-night 2-1 victory, gave Etowah (33-7) a sweep of the best-of-three series and the Class 6A championship.

Sharman, who has signed with Georgia but will likely be a high pick in July’s MLB draft, was named tournament MVP. He started at shortstop on Wednesday and went 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and three RBI after pitching a complete game on Tuesday.

“This is our MVP. This dude here is our guy,” said center fielder Trevor Condon, who has signed with Tennessee but is also expected to be a high MLB draft pick. “He’s the true definition of a dog.”

Etowah scored once in the first on Sharman’s sacrifice fly and twice in the third on Sharman’s two-run single. But there were empty opportunities that prevented the Eagles from putting the game away, among them starting pitcher Nate Curcio missing home plate to prematurely end the second-inning rally.

And when Etowah kept coming up empty — leaving two runners on base in the first, second and fourth innings and the bases loaded in the third — North Paulding began to get a second wind.

The Wolfpack (32-8) tied the game with three runs in the fifth when Curcio’s pitch count began to drain his tank. Lawson Sheffield drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single, and Skyler Lee chased another run home with a single. Etowah turned to reliever Lucas Zustiak, who got out of the inning without further damage, retiring the last nine batters to earn the win.

Etowah has borne the burden of high expectations all season. The Eagles won it all in 2024 but stumbled against Lowndes in the semifinals in 2025. (“That was a little punch in the face,” Condon admitted.)

The only goal this year’s team had was to win a state championship. And when the last out was recorded, the team avoided the traditional dogpile on the infield and raced to the deepest part of center field to celebrate.

“That’s kind of a tradition now,” said Deion Cole, who has signed with Georgia Tech. “We started it at the Final Four in 2024 when we beat Blessed Trinity. For some random reason, we ran to center field, and we all slid in the outfield. Me and Sharm were talking about it, and he said he wanted to take the lap in center field, just one last slide with the boys. We won the biggest game of the season, and we wanted some joy.”