Georgia’s Green shuts down Texas Complete-game effort buoys Cartersville

BANGOR – Brad Green may not have been an obvious choice to pitch for Cartersville, Ga., in its semifinal Friday at the Senior League World Series.

But the righthander proved to be the right choice, as Green kept hard-hitting Tyler, Texas, in check to spur the U.S. South champions to a 4-1 victory at Mansfield Stadium.

The win advances Cartersville to today’s 3 p.m. final against 2006 SLWS champion Falcon, Venezuela, which edged Hilo, Hawaii, 5-4 in nine innings in its semifinal.

Green scattered nine hits while striking out three and walking just one, and after yielding three hits and a run on his first seven pitches, he shut out the U.S. Southwest champions the rest of the way.

“About the second inning when they didn’t score any more was when I felt comfortable,” said Green. “I just started settling down and throwing strikes. Everybody said to have fun, and I started doing that.”

Green was by no means a lock to earn the start after Cartersville had rallied to earn its semifinal berth after losing its first two games of pool play.

“I was very hesitant on pitching Brad,” said Cartersville manager Eric Stewart. “He’s not had great outings the last few times, and he’s not got an overpowering fastball, but I just felt like today was going to be his day. Brad’s got excellent control, and he’s got ice water in his veins.”

Green teamed with catcher Hank Stewart to call all of the pitches, and the duo changed speeds effectively to limit the Texans’ power game.

Tyler outhit Cartersville 9-7 but had just one extra-base hit, a first-inning double by Seth Cashion that plated R.B. Bell with the team’s lone run.

“[Green] didn’t throw real hard, but he moved the ball in and out and didn’t make too many mistake pitches,” said Tyler manager Bobby Rushing.

Green was backed by errorless defense, marking the second straight game Cartersville has played without a miscue in the field.

The middle infield duo of shortstop Ben Bridges and second baseman Garison Boston turned a first-inning double play that minimized the Texans’ quick start, and Bridges and third baseman Chris Huth came up with additional defensive gems later in the contest.

“Our pitching’s been pretty good, and we’ve made all the plays that we should,” said Bridges. “All you have to do is make the routine plays.”

Cartersville took the lead thanks to one of the wackier plays of the weeklong tournament, a double rundown in the second inning in which Green was caught between second and third bases while Tyler Linn was caught between first and second.

“The ball hit in front of the plate and I thought it was going to get by the catcher so I just went and I got lucky, I guess,” Green said. “I was running for my life.”

Both runners ended up advancing a base on the play, thanks to a dropped tag and an errant throw.

“That was one of the most ignorant things I’ve seen in a long time, but fortunately for us we had two of the fastest people up here on the basepaths right then,” said Eric Stewart. “But halfway through the rundown the pitcher for Texas got involved in it and he pushed one of our players, so at that point we were going to get the bases, the rest of the rundown was a moot point.”

Green then scored on an infield error to tie the game, and Cole Payne hit a two-out single to drive home Linn with the go-ahead run.

Cartersville’s final two runs came in more conventional fashion, on a two-out, two-run double to right-center by Bridges in the fourth that drove home Boston and Tyler Williams.

“[Texas reliever Heath Mayo] led me off with a fastball,” said Bridges. “Then he came with a curveball and I just waited on it and drove it to the opposite field and got it in the gap.”

Payne finished with three singles for Cartersville, while Cashion doubled and singled and Mayo singled twice for the Texans.