"I think the kids came out ready to play. We're playing in a region [where there are] a lot of good baseball teams, and it's going to be evenly matched [throughout] the year," Colonels coach Todd Eubanks said. "They got one hit with runners in scoring position [and] happened to score some runs. We kept hitting the ball hard and right at 'em, but they turned a couple of double plays on us. It was just one of those days [where] we didn't get the big hit and didn't get people in a spot to get 'em in."
The Chiefs ruined an otherwise solid outing by Cass pitcher Tyler Gates when they loaded the bases to start the fourth inning.
Josh Stinson singled to right field, D.J. Smith walked and Travis Holmes got hit by the first pitch he saw to give Sequoyah a great scoring opportunity.
After Gates struck out back-to-back batters in the Chiefs' Zach Cagle and Alex May, Travis Harbin blooped a single to left field to give his team a two-run lead.
The Colonels' Taylor Bentley got on base via error in the bottom of the fourth, but Sequoyah's second baseman turned in a double play, despite a high bounce on Gates' grounder.
Cagle walked Cass' Dalton Parham but recorded the final out of the inning on a strikeout.
In the fifth, Sam Ayers, who had two of the Colonels' three hits, singled to right to begin the inning, but the next three batters grounded out to end the inning.
Bentley reached base in the sixth when Sequoyah's first baseman dropped a throw. After getting to second base on a wild pitch, Bentley advanced to third on Gates' grounder.
But the Cass threat ended there as Cagle came away with another inning-ending strikeout.
"They played good ball there," Eubanks said of the Chiefs. "Anytime you got a high school baseball game and you only got [three] errors total in the game, that's pretty good defense. They made some plays, and we had people in scoring position, second and third sometimes, with two outs and just didn't get the two-out hit.
"Last night, we got several two-out hits and scored some runs and won a big ball game on the road," he continued, referencing the Colonels' 11-10 win over South Forsyth. "Today we're at home and it just didn't happen. It's the second region game, there's 18 more, and we'll come back and get ready to go next week."
Gates pitched five innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks, and recorded 10 strikeouts. Brandon Etheridge threw two innings in relief for the Colonels, giving up no runs and striking out one batter.
Cagle tossed a complete-game shutout for Sequoyah, striking out six and giving up three hits and two walks.
Stinson and Smith each hit 1-for-2 with a walk for the Chiefs, and Harbin and Seth Hoover both finished 1-for-3, with Harbin adding two RBIs.
Ayers hit 2-for-3 with a double for Cass, and Bentley went 1-for-3.
The Colonels (3-3, 1-1) host Lambert Friday at 5:55 p.m. in a region showdown before playing Henry County and Stockbridge Saturday in the Diamond Dawg Challenge in Forsyth. The tournament at Mary Persons, which is in Monroe County, had to be rescheduled March 5 after rain doused its plans. Cass plays the Warhawks at 1:30 and the Tigers at 4 p.m.
Cass 11, South Forsyth 10
The Colonels took a seemingly commanding 5-1 lead Friday against the War Eagles, but watched the hosts rally to take an 8-6 lead after the sixth inning.
In the seventh, Dalton Weightman singled to load the bases following walks by Ronnie Lafollette and Etheridge.
Bentley then drew a walk to pull Cass within one. Gates' sacrifice fly plated Etheridge to tie the game at 8-all.
A couple of batters later, the Colonels regained the lead on Connor Law's three-run homer.
Gates pitched the bottom of the seventh for Cass, walking five of seven batters -- Hank Snider's walk scored Andrew Cooley and Zach Sforzo got hit by a pitch to score Devin Gearhart -- before ending the game with a strikeout.
Gates pitched one inning, giving up two runs on four walks while striking out two. Dylan Williams and Dalton Parham each pitched three innings for the Colonels, with Williams recording four strikeouts, four hits, four walks and one earned run, while Parham finished with four strikeouts, three hits, five walks and five earned runs.
Hitters for Cass were Weightman (2-for-4, walk), Bentley (2-for-4, double, RBI, walk), Gates (2-for-4, double, home run, four RBIs), Parham (1-for-4, walk), Law (2-for-3, two home runs, five RBIs, walk), Chaz Wilson (1-for-4), Lafollette (1-for-2, walk) and Etheridge (1-for-2, walk).
The Colonels grabbed an early lead in the first with Gates' run-scoring double. They added a couple more runs on Law's two-run homer, which gave Cass a 3-0 lead.
Snider's RBI single made it 3-1 after the first inning.
Gates' home run in the third scored Bentley, who doubled to lead off the inning, and the Colonels led by four runs.
Back-to-back errors in the bottom half of the inning gave South Forsyth those runs back as it trailed 5-3 going into the fourth.
Following Chad Taylor's bases-loaded walk, Cass went back ahead by three runs, 6-3, in the fourth, but the War Eagles tied it up with three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Jaesung Hwang hit a two-run, bases-loaded double, and Gearhart scored on a wild pitch.
South Forsyth added runs in the fifth on Jesse Gonzalez's RBI double and Zach McCrum's bases-loaded walk to take an 8-6 lead.