GA Power 25: Week 9

We are into the final week of the season and the pressure is on. Region titles will be decided this week, if they have not already been, and playoff positions will be solidified. Our Power 25 sees a shakeup in the top-10 as a number of the teams slipped up last week. We also welcome two new teams from Class 5A and a certain team from South Georgia rises six spots. You can see how teams stack up across the classifications by viewing our GHSA Class 7A-1A Polls.

Here are the top headlines coming out of the ninth week of the season, April 12 to April 18.

Buford Remains Unbeaten

+ No. 1 Buford (28-0) - The Wolves are one game away from a perfect season and they have done it in dominant fashion. The remaining game comes against 7A No. 1 Grayson, but at this point, it is tough to bet against Buford. No. 9 Winder-Barrow had their chance to trip them up last week, and gave them all they could handle in Game 1, but they could not knock the door down. Buford went on to take three games from Winder-Barrow. It is going to take a flawless game to beat the Wolves, and then it will have to be repeated if anyone is to knock them out of the playoffs.

Red Devils Rising

+ No. 3 Loganville (21-5) - Loganville rises to its highest ranking of the year, coming in at No. 3. The Red Devils have ripped off 11 straight wins since their lone region loss to No. 7 Greenbrier. Loganville and Greenbrier are neck and neck in the region standings with two games to go.The Red Devils will take on Eastside Monday and Wednesday, and then travel to No. 6 Grayson on Friday and Jefferson on Saturday. Regardless of where the Red Devils end up in the playoff picture, they should be looked at as one of the favorites in 5A.

Wolfpack Running Wild

+ No. 7 Greenbrier (21-4) - Greenbrier rises to its highest ranking of the year, coming in at No. 7. The Wolfpack have rattled off 10 straight wins since their lone region loss to No. 3 Loganville. Greenbrier will wrap up the regular season with their last two region games against Clarke Central. As we said above, they are tied atop the region standings with Loganville at 11-1. A lot of eyes in 5A will be on this region. It is arguably the top two teams in the Class and one of them will have to go into the playoffs as a 2 seed.

Top Teams Slip Up

+ When looking at team’s who are contenders and who are pretenders, it is typically the team’s that catch fire late in the season who make the deep runs in the postseason. It is not always the case, but it happens often. Although Carrollton (25-3) remains at No. 2, they have dropped two games recently, one to the No. 1 team in Alabama, and another over the weekend to East Paulding. The Trojans are battle tested and a confident group, so it's safe to say they will regroup.

No. 4 North Oconee (22-4) looked nearly unbeatable and were cruising much of the season before running into some trouble with North Hall and Jefferson, at the beginning of the month. Looking at the Titans past seven games, they are 4-3 and are on a three game win streak. The region title is still up for grabs with Jefferson trailing by one game. The Titans will have to close things out with a three game series against Madison County.

No. 6 Grayson (22-4) needed a sweep of Brookwood to keep pace with Parkview for the region title, but were only able to take two of three. Parkview will likely wrap up the region this week. This means the Rams will face a slightly tougher trek through the playoffs, but they should have the upperhand talent wise.

It is hard to knock No. 8 Winder-Barrow (19-5) too much after they were swept by No. 1 Buford. The Bulldoggs had a chance to steal the first game of the series, but could not get over the hump. From there, the depth of Buford won out. It is safe to say the psyche of the rest of 6A is not faring too well after seeing the results.

Riser

+ No. 18 Lowndes (20-7) - The Vikings wrapped up the region last Friday with a two game sweep of Tift County. Lowndes could surprise some teams who are not paying attention to what is going on in the southern part of the state. The Vikings pitch, hit and defend well. On top of that, they are road tested and have gone toe to toe with some of the top teams in the Sunshine State.

Welcome!

+ No. 21 Wayne County (21-5) - The Yellow Jackets are back in the rankings for the first time in seven weeks. Wayne County has stormed through region play and have wrapped up the title with three games to go. ‘22 Luke Boykin (uncommitted) has been tearing the cover off the ball, hitting his 11th home run of the season last week. The Yellow Jackets have gotten hot at the right time.

+ No. 25 Cartersville (22-7) - Cartersville break into the Power 25 for the first time this season. The Hurricanes are currently on an eight game winning streak and sit idle in second place of 5A-Region 7. Cartersville will need some help from Cass in order to overtake Blessed Trinity. Regardless, we got a first hand look at what Cartersville can do a few weeks ago at the Battle for Bartow. The Hurricanes are an experienced team that will battle up and down the lineup, and have a stable of strike throwers. This will be a dangerous team come playoffs.

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