LaGrange ends Cartersville title run

LAGRANGE - The longest current state title winning streak came to an end Saturday, as the LaGrange Grangers won Game 3 of the Class AAA state championship series 13-10 for the school&#39;s first baseball state title.<br> <br> The top-ranked Grangers (31-6) snapped Cartersville&#39;s three-year state championship streak. And with Saturday&#39;s victory, LaGrange ended the Purple Hurricanes&#39; 19 series winning streak dating back to 2001.<br> <br> LaGrange&#39;s Korey Noles went 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBI, and Brandon Monk and Drew Murray drove in two runs apiece to lead the Grangers to the title.<br> <br> While the first two games were pitchers&#39; duels LaGrange winning Game 1, 4-1 and the Canes (32-7) taking Game 2, 2-1 the finale was a scoring fest, aided by bad defense for both teams.<br> <br> The two teams combined for eight errors, and two Cartersville errors in the second inning led to an eight-run explosion for the Grangers.<br> <br> Andrew Manning, who was 2-for-4 with two runs scored, led the second with a solo home run off Cartersville freshman Benji Farr, and Noles capped the inning with a three-run home run to put the Grangers up 8-2.<br> <br> Cartersville trailed by as much as seven runs but began chipping away at the LaGrange lead and tied the game at 10-all in the sixth inning.<br> <br> The Canes took advantage of two Granger errors, two walks, a hit batter and an RBI single from Will Davis to cap the scoring.<br> <br> However in the bottom of the sixth, an infield error with two outs, extended the Grangers&#39; at-bat, and an RBI single by Justin Patterson and an RBI double by John Sherrer helped lift LaGrange to a state title.<br> <br> Cartersville&#39;s Scotty Morris was 3-for-4 with four runs scored and hit his first home run of the season, and Davis, Zak Kesler and Aubrey Caverly had two hits each for the Canes.<br> <br> LaGrange&#39;s Josh Edmondson, the winning pitcher in Game 1, pitched the final two innings to earn the victory. Kesler took the loss for Cartersville, pitching the final inning and allowing three runs on four hits.

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