Through two at-bats, Hillgrove right fielder Tucker Ehmig saw curveball after curveball from Newnan starter Marc Frazier in Game 1 of the Class AAAAA semifinals Monday, and he grounded to short and struck out.
His third time up, however, Ehmig got a Frazier fastball and got even, belting a three-run home run in the fifth inning for the key blow in the Hawks’ 8-6 win.
Right-hander Ben Lumsden later tossed a one-hitter and Ryan Raper and Max Oberkolfer belted homers in an 8-0Game 2 victory, completing a sweep for visiting Hillgrove.
“He hadn’t given me any fastballs I could handle,” Ehmig said of his first-game heroics. “He finally gave me one in the zone and I was sitting dead red. It was a great feeling to give the team a better chance to win the game.”
With the sweep, the Hawks (28-7) earned a trip to the state finals opposite the Parkview-Colquitt County winner. It was the 13th win in 14 games for Hillgrove.
The Hawks’ trip through the second and third rounds of the state playoffs included five consecutive close games, and Game 1 was no different.
Tyler Graham pitched 5 2/3 innings to get the win for Hillgrove, striking out six. (Graham also finished with three hits.) Mitchell Wade recorded the final four outs to get the save.
Frazier allowed eight runs in 4 1/3 innings for Newnan, striking out five and allowing seven hits.
Newnan, which started the season 1-6 but had won 21 of 24 games entering the semifinal, jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
Alex Hand homered in the first inning and Frazier doubled and came home on a pair of Hillgrove errors to make it 2-0.
In the bottom of the second, Jonathan Swen-son singled and later scored on Hand’s RBI single.
Frazier had retired the first six batters he faced, but the Hawks received a three-run triple from Eric Baguley to tie the game. Baguley scored on Raper’s single, capping a four-run inning.
Newnan pulled even in the third inning, but Hillgrove staged another four-run rally in the fifth. Tyler Mauzy singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Baguley sacrificed him to third and Raper followed with another RBI single. Chase Adkins hit a ground-rule double, setting up Ehmig’s home run, which gave Hillgrove an 8-4 lead.
Newnan’s Byrom Ferrell walked and later scored on Frazier’s RBI single in the sixth, and Kevin Scott belted a home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth to pull Newnan within two.
In the second game, the Hawks gave Lumsden all the support he needed in the bottom of the first, plating three runs, two on Ehmig’s single to right.
Newnan’s best chance to score came in the second inning, when Scott doubled and the Cougars loaded the bases with a walk and hit batsman. Lumsden, however, struck out Ferrell to end the threat.
Lumsden struck out six and retired the final 11 batters he faced.
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