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By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Callaway High baseball team celebrated senior day with a 2-1 home win over Glenwood School on Friday.

One of the seniors, Kaden Rogers, hit a solo home run to give the Cavaliers the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, and they held on from there.

Coming off a 7-1 loss to LaGrange a few days earlier where a lot went wrong, head coach Dusty Hubbard was pleased with the turnaround on Friday.

“We just wanted to go out and play better than we did last time, and I felt like the kids did that,” Hubbard said.

Callaway improved to 16-7, and it will finish the regular season with a pair of road games against Heard County on Tuesday. No matter what happens in those two games, Callaway will finish second in Region 5-AA, meaning it will be at home for the first round of the state playoffs.

The Cavaliers traditionally perform at a high level in the state playoffs, and they’re looking to do the same thing this year.

The Cavaliers reached the state semifinals in 2018 and 2019, and the 2020 playoffs were canceled because of COVID-19.

“We’ve got to get some guys healthy, and we’ve got to get in a groove a little bit and be ready when the playoffs get here,” Hubbard said.

As has been the case throughout the season, the pitching was exceptional for Callaway.

Justin Moore started and pitched five innings, and Tucker Starling and Brantin Swanson each threw a scoreless inning to finish it.

Moore was dominant, holding Glenwood to four hits and no earned runs while striking out nine batters.

After Starling worked around a walk to hold Glenwood scoreless in the sixth inning, Swanson was brought in to face two left-handed hitters to start the seventh inning, and Hubbard decided to left him try to finish the same.

“We were going to bring Bryce (Hubbard) in, but he got the two left-handed hitters out, so we left him out there, and he got the next guy out, too, so he did his job,” Hubbard said.

The Cavaliers scored their first run in the bottom of the first inning. CJ Stephens walked and stole a base, and after advancing to third on a wild pitch, he scored on another wild pitch, and Callaway led 1-0.

The game was tied when Rogers launched the ball over the outfield fence in the fourth inning for Callaway’s first home run of the season.

Rogers, Bryce Hubbard, Starling, Moore and Blake Sheppard each had a hit for Callaway.

After the game, a ceremony was held to honor the team’s five seniors, Kaden Rogers, Eli Freeman, Taylor Smith, Will Cavender and Javontay Boddie.