There was plenty action today at Lakepoint as we had games at the collegiate and high school level. Walton High School, ranked 9^th in the nation, played a doubleheader against the Johns Creek Gladiators and the Houston County Bears, winning both contest. LHP Luke Bartnicki (2018, Marietta, Ga.), ranked no. 12 in the class overall, started the first game for the Raiders and threw six innings, giving up only one hit, while striking out nine and walking 2. Bartnicki throws with a smooth, simple delivery that he has no trouble repeating. His FB was 90-92 in the 1^st and afterwards mostly sat from 86-89. The fastball was extremely effective when paired with his good slider and the slider has the ability to break both planes with tight spin. He mixed in a changeup that had fading life and ran from 78-80. Senior Jason Rooks (2017, Marietta, Ga.) displayed some nice pop going 4-9 and two RBI and catcher Jason Avers (2017, Marietta, Ga.) went 5-7 with four RBI.

Johns Creek fell to the Walton Raiders, but rebounded to defeat the East Paulding Raiders. The game was tied at 2, until Cameron Reamer (2018, Johns Creek, Ga.) broke the tie with a three-run blast. Ty Delancey (2017, Dallas, Ga.) started the game for East Paulding and threw five innings, allowing two runs and four hits while striking out two. Delancey threw a fastball that ran from 82-85 mph that he worked low to most batters and mixed in his late breaking mid-70s curveball.

The Houston County Bears dropped their first game against the Walton Raiders, but were able to pull out a win against East Paulding. Their bats came alive as they won 8-3 and put up four runs in the 4^th and 5^th inning. Austin Hittinger (2017, Warner Robbins, Ga.) had a great day at the plate for the Bears, as he hit a combined 3-7. The East Paulding Raiders had a tough day, as they lost both games to Johns Creek and the Houston County Bears. A bright note for the Raiders was Ty Delancey, again, showcasing his power as he hit a solo in the Raiders game against the Bears in the top of the 3^rd inning.

The Ohio Bearcats and SIU Edwardsville Cougars split in today’s contest, as the Ohio Bearcats won the first game 6-4 and the Cougars winning the second contest 7-4. The Cougars put up 5 runs in the 4^th inning and never looked back. Junior Dustin Woodcock (2015, Jacksonville, Ill.) had some strong at bats on Saturday, hitting 3-10 and squaring up a lot of baseballs. Woodcock stands upright and slightly open with a quiet load and small load with a slight lift of his foot. With his physical frame, he had no trouble going the other away against the opposing Bobcats pitchers. He also showed toughness as he fouled a ball off his face in the second game, but fought through the pain and continued to play. The former Louisville Cardinal, Butch Baird (2014, Big Prairie, Ohio) threw today for the Ohio Bobcats. Baird's fastball ran from 84-88 mph with life as he worked it low to majority of the Cougars hitters. When Baird found himself in a jam, he was able to mix in his slow curve (64-68 and changeup which sat in the upper-70s) to get batters to hit the ball into routine outs.

The Georgia Highlands Mustangs and Sinclair CC Tartans played some close baseball, but it was the tartans coming out on top in both games. The top of the order for Tartans were on fire in the beginning of the first game as Brandon Henson (2016, Reynoldsburg, Ohio), Colin Shepherd (2016, Westerville, Ohio) and Trevor Hafner (2016, Perrysburg, Ohio) put together a gang of hits to put up 5 runs in the first inning and never looked back.  The second game between the Mustangs and tartans went into extra innings. The Tartans came out on top as they were able to tack on two runs in the 11^th to earn the win. Freshman Glen Richardson (2016, North Canton, Ohio) worked a few innings in relief for the Tartans in the second game. He did a good jobs of mixing speeds with his FB, but it mainly ran from 87-91 and he paired that with his curveball which ran from 73-75. Richardson does a great job of working inside and locating low on batters. With his ability to mix speeds on his FB, he was very effective against Mustang hitters in his relief appearance.

The Canisius Golden Griffins won both of their Saturday games as they beat Chicago State 8-1and NJIT 6-1. The Canisius Golden Griffins have had some pretty active bats this weekend. Liam Wilson (2013, Ayr, Ontario) and Jake Lumley (2013, Windsor, Ontario) stuck out the most in the first game for the Golden Griffins as Wilson went 4-5 and Lumley went 3-4. In Canisius' second game against NJIT, the game remained close until the Golden Griffins put up three runs in the sixth inning and never looked back. Junior Ryan Stekl (2014, Lancaster, N.Y.) went 3-4 with two RBIs and Brennan Smith (Webster, N.Y.) recorded his first save throwing 2.2 innings and allowing one hit while striking out two. The NJIT Highlanders also dropped their first game to the IPFW Mastadons as the Mastadons broke a 3-3 tie by putting up a run in the sixth and seventh innings to edge out a win. Brandon Phelps (2013, Fort Wayne, Ind.) recorded a save and induced a 6-4-3 double play to conclude the Mastadons 5-3 win.