Prep Baseball Report

GA Power 25: Feb. 25


By Andy Sroka & Blake Davis
Georgia Staff

Today marks the start of our first official GA Power 25 update, after letting the dust settle on the first couple of weeks of high school action. Weather has marred some Power 25 teams out of the gate, especially last week and weekend, stagnating much of the top-25 board, but there’s still plenty of gameplay to note and movement up and down rankings.

From now on throughout the high school season, each and every Monday we’ll be updating the GA Power 25. As the weather gets warmer and sunnier, the board below is likely going to look a lot different than it does today, especially once May rolls around.

Here are the top headlines coming out of last week’s action, from Feb. 18 to 24.

+ No. 2 Parkview (3-0): The Panthers are 3-0 in the early going of 2019 and won all three of its games last week, including Saturday’s doubleheader against Lassiter and ranked Mountain View. Makenzie Pate’s two-run single in the third inning ultimately decided the winner in this pivotal early spring matchup. Cameron Orr’s solid five-inning start limited Mountain View to a single run, which came in the first frame, and Blake Sagerese pitched two scoreless frames to seal the win.

Parkview also duked it out with North Gwinnett in their season opener last Monday, in a batter of the No. 4 and No. 3 ranked teams in the state. The Panthers leapfrogged the Bulldogs in the Power 25 after a wild, back-and-forth game saw Parkview come out on top in extras. Noah Brown’s go-ahead RBI single got things started in the 10th and a two-run homer off the bat of Jonathan Ponder put the lead out of North Gwinnett’s reach.

Parkview has four critical games this week with two marquee matchups – one against California’s prestigious JSerra Catholic program on Wednesday in Alabama, as well as a doubleheader on Friday against 4A powerhouse Blessed Trinity and as well as Lambert, both hosted in Lilburn.

+ No. 3 South Forsyth (4-0): The War Eagles are checking in at 4-0, another undefeated team within the first handful of games up near the top of the rankings. While South Forsyth doesn’t have the most notable wins attached to their resume just yet, the schedule gets tougher this week within the LaGrange Tournament. They’re slated to face Trinity Christian (FL), LaGrange, and Niceville (FL), so we should get a better idea of this team’s make-up by this time next Monday.

+ No. 8 Woodstock (5-2): Woodstock’s up a spot on the Power 25 after putting together a 3-1 week that featured a perfect game thrown by senior southpaw Josiah Siegel, against Benedictine on Saturday. They suffered a loss on Wednesday to Savannah Christian but rectified themselves with wins over Richmond Hill and Benedictine, as well as last Monday’s win over West Forsyth.

South Carolina-committed senior SS Brennan Milone is heating up for the Wolverines, too, having homered twice last week. Milone & Co. have three games on the calendar this week, against Harrison, Kell, and McEachern.

+ No. 13 North Paulding (4-0): Red hot North Paulding is off to a convincing start this spring. Four games and four wins for the Wolfpack, including two last week in a doubleheader on Friday. North Paulding trounced ranked Mill Creek, 7-1, with the help of Mickey Maguire and Peyton Moseley at the plate. The two combined for seven hits and drove in four of their team’s seven runs. Georgia Tech commit RHP Zach Maxwell battled through some control issues (six walks) but struck out seven over four innings of work, holding Mill Creek hitless.

Against Lambert, tied 3-3 after three innings, the Wolfpack exploded offensively, scoring nine runs in the final three frames. Lead-off man T.J. Worley led the team with four hits (two doubles) while Moseley added another three hits and a pair of RBIs.

+ No. 14 Houston County (3-3-1): Since coming out of the gate with a tie and a loss, the ranked Bears are 3-2, including a split two-game series against Pike County last week. The news to know here is that Georgia State commit and star two-way prospect Chandler Dawson may have suffered a significant injury. The situation is one to monitor closely for the Bears and could significantly hamper their chances this spring.

+ No. 17 Cartersville (2-1): After opening the season with a victory over Villa Rica on Feb. 14, the Hurricanes played twice on Saturday at LakePoint against premier programs Etowah and Blessed Trinity. They came out of the weekend 1-1 with a narrow, late defeat at the hands of Etowah but celebrated a huge 8-2 win over the Titans earlier in the day.

Down 2-0 in the third inning against Blessed Trinity, Brant Smith doubled two home to tie the game back up. After that, it was all Canes. Cartersville scored three more in the fourth and added another three in the sixth on a three-run homer off the bat of J.P. Martin.

Against Etowah, the Canes had a 4-2 lead headed into the bottom of the fourth, but the Eagles chipped away and eventually took a 5-4 lead into the top of the seventh, enough to sneak past Cartersville late at LakePoint.

+ No. 24 Redan (4-1): At the Baseball at the Beach event, the Raiders notched a couple of wins, bringing their record to 3-0 on the week. PBR Florida’s Phil Kerber, the North Florida scouting director, was on site for Redan’s 8-2 win over Brunswick and got to see first-hand the kind of talent that the Raiders are rostering.

Righty Enmanuel Martinez, an Eastern Kentucky commit, pitched over a couple of runs allowed in the first frame to settle in and allow his offense to force their way back into the lead. Backstop Christian Webb, who’s committed to New Mexico, caught Kerber’s attention for his work behind the plate as well as the offensive upside he displayed at it. He doubled in the win over Brunswick (captured below). Ryan Pruitt led Redan with three RBIs in the win.

+ No. 25 Marist (3-2): The lone team to crack the Power 25 for the debut on the rankings is the Brookhaven school Marist, a program that topped both Hillgrove and Walton last week. The War Eagles are returning seven starters from 2018’s team, a team that went 9-3 in their 4A region that also features Blessed Trinity.

They followed up back-to-back losses to start their spring with three straight quality wins against Buford, Walton, and Hillgrove, a strong enough resume to earn them a spot at the end of the Power 25.

They’re led by a core group of seniors: RHP Seb Thomas (Auburn commit), C James MacCallum (Mercer), and RHP Chase Otten (Birmingham Southern). Junior two-way prospect Liam Sullivan, a Georgia commit, is also back contributing to Marist’s climb back to 4A state, a title they won in 2017.

ON THE BUBBLE

+ Etowah (4-2): It’s possible that no team has had a more difficult schedule than the Etowah Eagles, so far in 2019. And things won’t get any easier with South Forsyth this evening and Pope on Friday.

Despite all that, Etowah is 4-2 this spring with wins over River Ridge, Sequoyah, Creekview, and ranked Cartersville, while their only two losses have come to highly ranked programs Blessed Trinity and Buford in narrow defeats. Their test this evening could go a long way in next week’s ranking update, or make things that much more challenging and pressured-packed against Pope later this week.

+ Hillgrove (3-1): The Hawks had an excellent chance at climbing into the Power 25 on Saturday evening when they squared off with Marist. As it turns out, that contest ultimately decided which team would grasp the No. 25 spot on the rankings this week. Marist’s extra-innings victory had them hurdle Hillgrove on the board, but barely, and the Hawks are still firmly on the bubble.

They have an important week ahead, with three games to play (Carrollton on Tuesday, Allatoona on Friday, and Walton on Saturday). Georgia-bound righty Max DeJong has flown out of the gate. Seniors SS Wade Richardson (Columbia State CC), OF Justin Tew (Middle Tennessee State), and 1B/DH Reid Brown (Austin Peay), are all pulling their weight in the early going. Their fellow senior RHP Alex McCay (Mercer) is effectively backing up DeJong on this staff, too.

THE OFFICIAL GA POWER 25 Rankings


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