Following a frustrating, two-run region road loss on Tuesday night at Hiram, the Villa Rica High School baseball team bounced back behind a 12-8, eight-inning road win at No. 4 East Paulding on Wednesday evening.

The Wildcats (9-3, 4-2 Region 5-AAAAA) scored four runs in the top of the eighth to go ahead for good and junior Wade Bailey tossed three shutout innings of relief for the critical region triumph over the Raiders (7-3, 4-1) in Dallas.

“Yeah, definitely good to get back on track after dropping a couple that I felt like we shouldn’t have dropped,” VR coach Jay Sneddon said. “So it was good to get one back.”

With the score knotted 8-8 going into the eighth inning, Villa Rica’s Alex Holdbrooks coaxed a two-out, bases-loaded walk to bring in the go-ahead run, setting up a three-run double by Zach Dutton in the next at-bat to blow the game open.

Mikey Palagano led the offense with a 4-for-5 showing at the plate for VR, with Bailey (2-for-3, 3 IBB) and Dutton (2-for-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI) also having multiple-hit efforts.

Villa Rica closes out the week with a home game on Friday against South Paulding. First pitch is set for 5:55 p.m.

In other prep baseball action from Wednesday:

Haralson County 7, Rockmart 6 (8 innings): The Rebels (6-4, 3-0 Region 4-AAA) remained unbeaten in region play, edging the Yellow Jackets in extra innings.

Justin Akins got the win in relief, working 1.1 innings, allowing one run on two hits with two strikeouts. Alex Hammond started for Haralson, yielding five runs on three hits with nine strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work.

Offensively, Jake Carnes drove in four runs and Micah Cramer had a hit and two RBI, while Trevor Porter had a pair of hits for the Rebels.

Carrollton Junior High 13, Heard County 3 (5 innings): Jake Buchanan got the win on the hill and went 2-for-2 with two RBI at the plate for the Trojans (9-0). Chandler Dixon (2-for-2, 2 2B) and Luke Schilling (2-for-3) also had multiple-hit efforts.

Carrollton returns to action on Tuesday at Central.

Prep Golf

The Carrollton High School girls’ golf team came in second place out of 10 teams at the First Tee Troup County Tournament on Wednesday, finishing with a tally of 145 points, trailing only West Forsyth (135).

On the par-3 course, Sydney Needham led Carrollton with a 67, followed by Elizabeth Curvino (78) and Mary Kate Groninger (82) and Haley Hernandez (82).