Courtesy of the Times-Georgian

With the game tied 4-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Carrollton left fielder Luke Turner approached the batters’ box. Two-straight walks to start the inning had placed Andrew Albertus and Maddox Monsour on base.

Turner took strike one looking, but an opportunity like that did not pass him by again, as he found the barrel of the bat on the next pitch, sending a fly ball over the left-field fence to give the Carrollton Trojans a 7-4 win over Valdosta in the first game of a first-round playoff series on Friday.

The Trojans went on to win the second game of the double header 7-6, sealing their trip to the second round.

After recently returning to play from a mid-season injury, Cade Cosper got the start for Carrollton in game one, lasting four and two-thirds innings with two runs allowed (one earned) on one hit and four strikeouts.

John Cobb picked up the win in relief, going the remaining two and one-thirds innings and allowing two runs (none earned) on two hits with three strikeouts.

Albertus had a clean night at the plate, leading the way with three hits on three at-bats and scoring three runs. Turner and Carson Sewell also had multi-hit nights with two apiece. Counting his homer, Turner ended the night with four runs batted in.

In game one, Carrollton steadily constructed an early lead, first as Albertus scored on an error in the first inning and Seth Childers led off the second inning with a solo homer.

Valdosta cut into the lead with one run in the third, but RBI singles by Turner and Sewell in the bottom of that frame made it 4-1 Trojans.

It wasn’t until the fifth that the visiting Wildcats knotted things up, scoring three runs to make it 4-4. The tying runs scored on balls put into play by Isaiah Haygood and Michael Kirk after two walks put runners in scoring position.

However, Cobb entered the game to clean up from the hill and tossed a strikeout to end the inning. After that point, the game went scoreless until Turner’s home run broke the silence and gave Carrollton the win.

The Trojans (16-12) are a two seed and will now take things on the road to one-seed Hillgrove (22-10) with a double header starting at 4 p.m. this Friday. If needed, game three of the series will be played on Saturday at noon.