HOMER — The West Hall baseball team kept its hopes for a second place finish in Region 7-AAA alive salvaging the final game of a doubleheader Thursday against Banks County.
The Leopards took a 7-6 win in the opener but the Spartans won the second game, 9-0, to take 2 of 3 in the series. West Hall beat Banks County 5-1 Tuesday in the series opener.
The Spartans (17-9, 11-7 Region 7-AAA) now will have to wait to see what happens in the Dawson County-Lumpkin County doubleheader set for Friday in Dawsonville. West Hall trails Dawson County (17-7, 11-5) by one game in the standings. The Spartans own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Tigers but would need a Lumpkin County sweep on Friday to finish tied and claim second place.
In the first game, Banks County beat up on West Hall pitchers Charlie Cochran and Tanner Ahmad for 11 hits and took advantage of nine walks. Brian Newman, Jeffrey Jenkins, and Merritt Gazaway each had two hits for West Hall.
In the second game, Jenkins shutdown the Leopards tossing a complete-game, four-hitter to get the win and keep the Spartans alive. Ahmad had three hits and Gazaway had a three-run home run for West Hall.
One more Dawson County win would drop the Spartans into the No. 3 seed in next week's Class AAA state playoffs and claim second place for the Tigers.
