CALHOUN, Ga. — If the folks in Calhoun never see Adam Whitlock again, it’s doutbful anyone would complain.

Whitlock, The Lovett School’s sweet-swinging senior first baseman and future Chattanooga State Tiger, didn’t single-handedly deal the host Calhoun Yellow Jackets a Class AA second-round doublheader sweep Wednesday. It just seemed like it. In leading the 20-9 Lions to 11-10, 13-3 wins, Whitlock was a perfect 6-for-6 with six RBI’s and five runs scored.

He even pitched a rare scoreless inning in a wild first game to earn the pitching win.

“The ball looked real big tonight for some reason,” Whitlock said. “I was kind of surprised they kept pitching to me inside, but I’m glad they did. We got beat pretty bad here last year, so we wanted a little payback.”

Calhoun, the Region 7 champions who swept the Lions in last year’s first round, ends its season 26-4.

Game one, both coaches agreed, was the key. The Lions had only one scoreless inning as they roughed up Calhoun ace Carter Harrison for nine earned runs in six innings, while the Jackets had two. One of those happened to be the seventh inning, where Lovett’s Clayton McKinney, who would shut the Calhoun bats down in game two, pitched a perfect inning to close the game out.

After Whitlock’s RBI single and Jerry O’Meara’s three-run homer put the visitors in fromt 9-6 in the fifth inning, the Jackets came right back wih three of their own. A tight strike zone contributed to 11 Lovett walks and forced pitchers on both side to hit the middle of the plate more than they wanted. Three of those walks came in the Calhoun fifth, with Tre Lamb and Michael Johnson scoring on errors after walking and Brad Moss tying the game with free pass.

Lovett, however, took the lead for good in the sixth when, after Whitlock was pitched around to loade the bases with two outs, Campbell Wilson delivered a go-ahead two-run single. The Jackets had a shot to re-take the lead in the sixth, but after loading the bases with one out could only get one run home on Lamb’s two-out walk.

Calhoun got a break in the seventh when a Lovett run was taken off the board when the umpire ruled runner’s interference at second base, but could do nothing with it in the bottom half as McKinney, despite two long fly outs from Jeremy King and Jarrett Didrick, got the save.

“That first game was one of missed opportunities,” said Calhoun coach Chip Henderson, noting the Jackets left 11 runners on base. “We had plenty of chances, but we couldn’t get that one clutch hit. It seemed every time we scored, they would come right back.”

Game two was over quickly as the Lions scored four runs in each of the first two innings to take an 8-0 lead. Whitlock got things going with a two-run double, with O’Meara adding another two-run homer a batter later. Whitlock added another RBI double and Stewart Coleman a two-run single in the second as the Lions scored four times after two were out.

Whitlock capped his day with a solo shot in the fourth, while catcher Brian Erickson ended the game in the bottom of the fifth with a three-run homer.

“We swung the bats better today than we have all year,” Lovett coach Lance Oubs said. “We knew, with the size of this ballpark, that we would have to score some runs, so I told the guys not to worry if they scored a few. I think that first game took a lot out of them.”