Kell sweeps East Forsyth in Class 4A baseball quarterfinals

Kell turned East Forsyth’s home quarterfinal into a short night, blanking the Broncos 10-0 before hanging on for a 2-1 finish that ended a 25-win season in Forsyth County.

The sweep on May 6 sent Kell into the GHSA Class 4A semifinals and closed the book on an East Forsyth run that had already included wins over Wayne County and Jackson. East Forsyth finished 25-11, while Kell moved on at 22-15, a matchup that paired the Broncos’ stronger record with a Longhorns team that arrived with late postseason momentum and never let go of it.

Game 1 showed how quickly the series tilted. Dominic Consolino delivered a one-hit shutout and struck out five for Kell, while Brock Burrus got the Longhorns moving with an RBI single in the first inning. Kell kept adding pressure with a sacrifice fly and RBI single in the third, then broke the game open in the fourth on a two-run double by Preston Bottoms and a two-run home run from Sam Castleberry. The Longhorns scored twice more in the fifth to end it in five innings. Grant Barden took the loss for East Forsyth, allowing nine runs on nine hits in four innings, and Benny McDonald collected the Broncos’ only hit.

The second game gave East Forsyth a clearer path to a comeback, but Kell still controlled enough of the strike zone and the big moments to finish the sweep. East Forsyth’s only run came on Drew Collis’ solo home run in the fourth, and Adiel Gibson kept the Broncos close by allowing two runs on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. Even so, East Forsyth left four runners on base over the final three innings, including two in scoring position, and could not cash in the chance to extend the series.

For Kell, the win carried more than one series result. The Longhorns were the only Region 6 team left in the Class 4A field as a No. 4 seed and were set to meet the winner of Cartersville-St. Pius, with weather delaying the start of that series on May 7. GHSA’s championship schedule lists the semifinals and finals for May 22-23 and May 25-27 at venues including AdventHealth Stadium in Rome, Synovus Park in Columbus, Georgia Southern University and Gwinnett Field. For East Forsyth, the message was simpler: a promising spring ended with one cold matchup and too many missed chances, leaving the Broncos to regroup after a season that had put Forsyth County baseball back in the quarterfinals.