Gilmer County-Man suspended in fourth inning, Titans lead Hillbillies 7-4

Man coach Mike Crosby meets with his infield in between innings of Monday's 5-4 loss to Gilmer County in the Class A Region 4 championship series. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Mosley).

Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports

GLENVILLE   Game two of Tuesday night's Class A Region 4 championship series between Gilmer County and Man was suspended in the fourth inning with the Titans leading the Hillbillies 7-4.

The game will resume Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. with Man batting in the top of the fourth inning with two outs.

The Titans and Hillbillies played three innings in heavy rain before the game was halted at 7:55 p.m. when Cam Gerace lost control of his bat. The four-man umpiring crew came together for a conference and decided to pull both teams off the field and wait out the weather.

What was supposed to be a 15-minute delay, grew to 30-minutes but heavier rain pushed the delay to just over an hour. Both coaches met along the first base foul line, reaching an agreement to halt play and resume Wednesday.

Man jumped out to 3-0 lead after one inning and lead 4-1 after two innings before Gilmer County plated six runs on just one hit to take a 7-4 lead.

The Titans took advantage of the Hillbillies ineffectiveness to throw strikes. In the inning, Man pitchers walked five batters, threw two wild pitches and hit one batter.

Gilmer County scored two runs on a two-run single by Kolten Holbert, a pair of bases loaded walks, one on an error and one on a wild pitch.

Gauge Goodrich and Tyler Ratliff each drew a bases loaded walk to cut the deficit to 4-3. Ratliff scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, Holbert's 2-run single put the Titans ahead 6-4 and Remi Huffman scored on an error to complete the third inning scoring.

The Hillbillies took advantage of a pair walks and an error to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Courtesy runner Caleb Brown scored on an error giving Man an early 1-0 lead.

Cody Walls singled to drive in Braxton Messer for a 2-0 lead and Walls scored on an error to make it 3-0.

Gilmer County got a run in the bottom of the first when Holbert stole home to cut the Hillbilly lead to 3-1 after one.

Gerace singled in the second to drive in Noah Frazier and give Man a 4-1 lead after two.

Gilmer County is 10 outs away from its first state tournament appearance since 2014 while Man must win in order to force a decisive game three Thursday evening at William "Tootie" Carter Field.

Pitching will be a concern as neither starting pitcher, Gilmer County's Holbert and Man's Messer, from Monday is eligible to throw. Gilmer County starting pitcher Braylon Mencer (39 pitches) and reliever Huffman (40 pitches) will be available to pitch after exceeding the one-day rest limit (0-35 pitches).

Man starting pitcher Noah Maynor (61 pitches) is unavailable to pitch for the Hillbillies. Walls came on in relief of Maynor in the third inning, throwing just 28 pitches, and would be available to reenter the game should Crosby elect to do so. Also available for the Hillbillies is Landon Cantrell, who threw seven pitches to get the final out of the third inning.

Man also has the availability of Gerace, who threw nine pitches in Monday's loss.