GHSA Playoff Preview: 7A
April 23, 2019
Finally, and officially, playoff baseball in Georgia is here. After last week’s slate of games decided which teams are seeded where, we finally know which teams are inside the 32-team tournament, and which are on the sidelines. First things first, we’re going to break down the 7A class, led by the GA Power 25’s new No. 1 overall program, the Parkview Panthers.
GROUP 1
Teams:
+ No. 1 seeds: Parkview (GA Power 25 No. 1), Walton (No. 9)
+ No. 2 seeds: North Paulding (No. 10), Archer
+ No. 3 seeds: North Forsyth, Campbell
+ No. 4 seeds: Peachtree Ridge, (at-large)
Parkview, as of Monday’s GA Power 25 update, is the state’s top ranked team in the state. They own wins this spring over the likes of North Gwinnett, Mountain View, Grayson, JSerra Catholic (Calif.), Buford, Brookwood (twice). They open against Peachtree Ridge, a team that went 15-14 overall this spring and scored a couple notable early-season wins this spring. The Lions defeated ranked Buford and Winder-Barrow back in February, but mostly scuffled in Region 6 action.
No. 9-ranked Walton will play Collins Hill on Wednesday. The Raiders went 11-4 in a challenging Region 4, and won their three-game series against both Woodstock and Etowah, which allowed them to claim the top spot in the group. As for Collins Hill, they were given the at-large spot, as determined by the GHSA committee. The Eagles, 16-12 overall, slid into the playoffs as the fifth team repping Region 6. Their series victory against Mountain View to close the regular season helped push them into the bracket as the final team in the 7A bracket.
North Paulding is the No. 10-ranked team in the state and has just six losses in 2019. Of course, the two most important losses they endured are fresh on the mind. After beating Hillgrove in the first game of their three-game series, they dropped the next two, which virtually pushed them out of the top spot in Region 3 and earned them a No. 2 seed in this group.
Archer (17-11) and North Forsyth (16-12) are two equally matched programs battling for a second-round berth.
Finally, Smyrna’s Campbell (10-9-1) program are the ones set to take on the Wolfpack from North Paulding. The Northwest Atlanta suburban squad struggled to start their spring season but battled back to .500.
GROUP 2
Teams:
+ No. 1 seeds: North Gwinnett (No. 3), Lowndes
+ No. 2 seeds: Forsyth Central, East Coweta
+ No. 3 seeds: South Gwinnett, Kennesaw Mountain
+ No. 4 seeds: Lakeside, Etowah (No. 21)
This group of eight teams has two ranked teams among them, and one is actually a No. 4 seed, the Etowah Eagles. Etowah is 19-11 this spring, 7-8 inside their own region, but have some of the best wins of any 7A team in the state. The Eagles were giant-killers the first six weeks of the spring. They debuted on the GA Power 25 in Week 3 after winning games against Cartersville, South Forsyth, Pope, Grayson, Milton, and North Paulding. The losses sprinkled in amidst that staggering stretch came against the likes of more ranked programs like Buford and Blessed Trinity. They went on to win games later against Loganville and Harrison earlier this month, but struggled, relatively so, within Region 4.
They’ve been up and down since mid-March, making their first-round series against No. 1 seed Lowndes one to follow closely, because no result would be surprising.
For the Vikings, they went 18-10 this spring but cruised inside their own Region 1 with a 10-2 mark. They’ve played three teams throughout the course of the 2019 season that have been ranked at one point – Pope, Valdosta, and Thomas County Central (twice) – and went 0-4 against the three. We’ll see how they fare against Etowah’s big-game experience but uneven form entering the postseason.
North Gwinnett (25-5) is the other ranked team inside this group. They’re the No. 3-ranked team on the GA Power 25 and have been perched there since Week 8. A 16-2 record in a region with five playoff-bound teams is a really impressive record. They’re set to play Lakeside that started the spring 11-2 and have gone 5-8 since.
Forsyth Central and South Gwinnett looks to be a really interesting match-up on paper. Central nearly chased down ranked Milton for the Region 5 title this spring. They played the Eagles on April 18 to determine the winner of the region, having previously beaten Milton twice earlier in the spring, but ultimately fell, 11-2, with the crown up for grabs. As for South Gwinnett, they’re 5-1 this month but have mostly scuffled against teams on our just outside the GA Power 25.
Lastly, East Coweta is set to play Kennesaw Mountain in what should be a pretty hotly contested best-of-three series. The Indians battled Newnan on the last day of the regular season to determine the winner of Region 2 and lost, 7-2, which has handed them a first-round meeting with the Mustangs. Kennesaw Mountain has mostly lived around the Bubble this spring and they turned in a 8-7 record inside a competitive Region 3. They won their series with North Cobb and were able to collect single wins against both North Paulding, Hillgrove, and a non-league contest against Harrison.
GROUP 3
Teams:
+ No. 1 seeds: Hillgrove (No. 8), Milton (No. 12)
+ No. 2 seeds: Woodstock (No. 19), Mill Creek (No. 23)
+ No. 3 seeds: Norcross, Camden County
+ No. 4 seeds: Rockdale County, Wheeler
The Hillgrove Hawks, 24-6, have been one of the best stories this spring, having started the season off the GA Power 25 and since have firmly entrenched themselves on the top half of the board, now sitting inside the top-10. They won Region 3 outright, effectively after taking two of three from North Paulding a couple weeks back. They have some seriously impressive wins this spring, too: Brookwood, Allatoona, Walton, North Gwinnett, Mill Creek, and Milton. That’s without touching all the good work they’ve done inside their own cutthroat Region 3.
They were assigned Wheeler in the first round. The Wildcats are 14-14 in 2019, and will be headed into the postseason losers of their last three. They haven’t had much success against teams who finished the spring above .500, so it’ll be interesting to see how Wheeler’s able to keep up with the Hawks.
The other No. 1 seed in this group is Milton. The Eagles had a strong spring campaign, finishing the regular season 21-7, but were in a tight race to close out Region 5 play with Forsyth Central. Ultimately, Milton won the final game of the season to earn themselves a regional title. Meanwhile, Rockdale County snuck in as the fourth team from Region 8, with a record of 6-16 on the spring, and they’ll be tasked with attempting an upset of the No. 12-ranked Milton squad.
Woodstock has been a feature on the GA Power 25 all spring long and at 20-10 overall, they’ve been a little perplexing this spring. Obviously, with the level of difficulty of their spring schedule, another 20-win season for the Wolverines is a huge accomplishment, but Woodstock’s also lost a couple games you might have expected they’d win. Regardless, they have two wins this spring over Etowah and other notable wins over the likes of Harrison, Peachtree Ridge, and managed one win in their three-game set over Walton.
They’ll be playing Camden County in the opening round, a program that went 17-11 this spring, though won just four regional games. They won one game in four tries against Lowndes this season.
The final series to cover inside this group is No. 23-ranked Mill Creek versus Norcross. The Hawks just reemerged onto the GA Power 25 after sneaking into the No. 2 seed from Region 6, and their series win over Mountain View at the start of the month is what saved them from a tough first-round test against Brookwood on Wednesday. But they shouldn’t expect to breeze by the Blue Devils either. Norcross is 17-13 this spring and is sincerely capable of putting up a fight in the opening round.
GROUP 4
Teams:
+ No. 1 seeds: Grayson (No. 17), Newnan
+ No. 2 seeds: Brookwood (No. 20), Colquitt County
+ No. 3 seeds: Mountain View, Lassiter
+ No. 4 seeds: Lambert, North Cobb
This is one of the most evenly balanced fields of eight in the tournament. There isn’t a very large gap between any of the No. 4 seeds and the No. 1 seeds, so it’s going to be a dogfight to determine which of these teams is coming out of this group. Grayson is the top ranked team among the eight, at No. 17 on the GA Power 25. The Rams won their third straight regional title last week, going 15-0 in Region 8. While they technically lost to Loganville on Saturday, the game more closely resembled an exhibition than a regular season game, considering both teams were preparing for next week’s playoffs.
Apart from that loss, Grayson has been defeated just twice since early March, and both came on their spring break trip to Florida. They strung together 16 straight wins against Georgia opponents and will play Lambert on Wednesday. The Longhorns scuffled from mid-February to mid-March but have been playing better baseball of late, and even notched a win over regional champs Milton last week.
Newnan is the other No. 1 seed in this group, and they don’t have an easy assignment in North Cobb this week. The series looks more like a No. 1 and No. 2 seed meeting in the quarterfinals than an opening round contest. The Cougars are 19-8 this spring and are a top seed after beating East Coweta in the last game of the regular season. Meanwhile, the Warriors are 20-8, though they went 7-8 in the difficult Region 3. North Cobb actually spent some time, briefly, on the GA Power 25, and owns some big wins this spring over the likes of Woodstock and Wheeler, and they were able to pull out wins in series losses to Hillgrove, Kennesaw Mountain, and North Paulding.
Two sub-.500 teams are meeting as No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, Colquitt County and Lassiter. The Colquitt Packers have been playing better of late, splitting their two games with Lowndes and taking both games against Camden County. As for Lassiter, they’ve played a really difficult schedule, so don’t underestimate these Trojans. They’re also fresh off taking two of three from Etowah.
And then there’s arguably the series of the 7A first round: Brookwood and Mountain View. The Broncos chased Parkview down to the wire for the Region 7 crown, but ultimately lost their end-of-the-season series to take the No. 2 seed. Brookwood is the No. 20-ranked team on the GA Power 25 and they were all the way up to No. 12 just a week ago. They’re 21-9 this spring and have non-regional wins over the likes of Harrison, Flowery Branch, Buford, Mill Creek, and Walton though they did lose their one game against the Bears this spring, 5-3.
Mountain View would probably be the next team on the GA Power 25 if we expanded it a single spot, but they were dropped off the rankings after losing two of three to Collins Hill in the last week of regional action. At 20-9 on the season, they’re a good team and have it in them to make a lengthy run in the postseason, but it’ll be an exceptionally tough road.
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