RINGGOLD, Ga. - Game one of Heritage's doubleheader against North Oconee in the second round of the GHSA Class AAAA state playoffs lived up to its hype, but it was the second game that stole the show Thursday.
Team USA Baseball pitchers - and projected Major League Baseball first-round draft picks - Cole Wilcox and Kumar Rocker went head-to-head in the opener, with Heritage's Wilcox outdueling Rocker in a 6-3 win. The host Generals then rallied from five runs down to win the second game 7-5 and sweep the best-of-three series.
Heritage (27-6) will host West Laurens, which swept Eastside in a pair of one-run games Thursday, in the state quarterfinals starting next Wednesday.
"It was tough coming out in that second game because nobody can ignore the buildup for that first game," Heritage coach Eric Beagles said. "It didn't come up short; it was some more show for the people to see. To come back in the second game - and we were the visiting team - and to immediately give up a run in the first inning was a killer. Then we gave up two more, then two more, and it looked bleak.
"These guys have battled all year, and they have been in tough situations in the past, and they did a good job of drawing on those experiences today."
After Wilcox threw a perfect first inning in game one, Lance Dockery led off the bottom half with a massive opposite-field home run off the 6-foot-6 Rocker, the son of former Auburn football star Tracy Rocker. Luke Grant followed with a single, stole second and later scored on Wilcox's groundout.
North Oconee (22-9-1) got a run back in the second after a walk, hit batter, passed ball and sacrifice fly by Rylan Laird, but Wilcox got two weak outs to end the threat and then struck out the side in the third to re-establish his dominance.
The Generals added a pair of runs in the fourth on Johnathan Hickman's two-run single, but the Titans answered in the sixth to again make it a one-run game on two hits and two errors. Heritage, though, got those two runs right back in the bottom half on Hickman's RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Wilcox, who sat down the Titans in order in the seventh to seal the win.
"Cole is just a competitor," Beagles said. "What can you say? To be in that kind of arena and to come through like that, man, it says a lot. Some people like to be in that arena because of all the attention it brings them, but Cole loves it because he just wants to compete."
North Oconee set the tone early in game two, scoring a run in the first, two in the second and two more in the third against Heritage starter Tripp Church, who came in with an 8-0 record and an ERA of less than 1.
Heritage, unable early to gauge the slower pitching of North Oconee left-hander Brad Stephenson, found its groove in the fourth, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six runs on five hits. Josh Gibson plated the first two runs with a bases-loaded single, Blake Bryan added a run-scoring hit and Alex Coulter brought home two more with a two-out single to right.
"We've been down in state games before, so we know what it takes to get back in a game," said Gibson, who had two hits in each game. "You just have to chip away and get back in it."
Beagles turned to Nolan Letzgus in relief, and the junior proceeded to shut the Titans out over the final four innings. He worked out of a two-out, bases-loaded situation in the sixth by striking out Gianni Lombardo, then stranded a runner at second in the seventh.
"Tripp wasn't his normal self today, but Nolan came in and gave us some good innings there and found his groove," Beagles said. "He's been fresh, and we knew he has a good breaking ball, because these guys swing it well, but they have trouble with breaking balls."
» Also in Class AAAA's second round, Northwest Whitfield was eliminated at Jefferson as the Dragons swept with 3-0 and 5-1 wins.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.