Heritage and Salem met on the baseball diamond with plenty at stake.

However, the results were familiar as Heritage won for the fourth straight time against the Salem Seminoles and improved its overall winning streak to six in two games this week. The two teams were neck-and-neck for second place in Region 8B-AAAA coming.

Heritage (15-7, 10-3 Region 8-AAAA) went on the road for an 8-0 win at Salem (7-14, 5-7) Monday before returning home to pick up a win over the Salem Seminoles 6-1 on Thursday.
The Patriots had strong pitching performances in both with Ryan Gasque going into the seventh inning. With Gasque keeping Salem's bats at bay, Heritage's offense did the rest for its longest winning streak of the season.

On Monday Cathcart introduced Salem to Patriots' pitchers, throwing a complete game shutout.

Heritage started with a lead off bunt single by Philip Kelley. The senior stole second base, reached third on a passed ball and scored on another passed ball, taking a 1-0 lead.
When Salem came to bat at the bottom of the inning, it became the Luke Cathcart show. The lefty kept the Salem Seminoles' batters at bay with a very effective fastball, keeping Salem scoreless at the bottom of the frame.

Heritage would break the game open in the top of the second. Jordan Martin, who recently signed with Georgia Southwestern, walked.

That was followed by another walk by Ryan Sutton and then Kelley was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Zach Whiten hit a shot down the third base line that the fielder failed to catch up to, scoring Martin and Sutton. Kelly would eventually score on a sacrifice fly by Domenic Bazzanti, extending the lead to 4-0. Salem had no answer for Cathcart, only managing a ground out and two strikeouts in the bottom half of the frame.

It was more of the same in the top of the third for Heritage with the aide of four Salem errors as Matt Reeves, Adam Howard, Ryan Gasque, and Martin all scored for the Patriots, building the lead to 8-0.

The lead was insurmountable as Salem still had no answer for Cathcart, only managing four base runners for the rest of the game. The bats for the Patriots also became cold as they coasted for the 8-0 victory.

The wins secured a second-place seeding in the region, five games behind Loganville. The Patriots are now 10 games ahead of Salem, who has secured a third seed in the subregion.

Heritage hosts Flowery Branch in the regular season finale today, while Salem played Madison County after press time Friday night. The region playoffs begin Wednesday.