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GHSA Playoffs: Championship Round Recap (Days Two & Three)

May 22, 2019
By Andy Sroka
Staff Writer

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we just about wrapped up the 2019 GHSA baseball season. All classes but 6A’s Pope-Heritage series have a 2019 champ. We crowned two champions on Monday night, 5A’s Loganville and 7A’s Parkview, but there’s a lot more to share with you that’s happened since.

Stay tuned today, Thursday, as Pope and Heritage-Conyers close out another magnificent season of baseball in the Peach State. Follow us on Twitter at @PBRGeorgia and utilize the #GHSAPlayoffs hashtag to keep up with the live action as it happens, and for more baseball as we get into the busy summer ball season.

Here’s what you may have missed from Tuesday and Wednesday.

6A

POPE VS. HERITAGE-CONYERS

GAME ONE: Pope came into this series on Wednesday looking for its third straight 6A title and fifth state championship since 2009. But this road to the title game has been anything but smooth. The Greyhounds have been challenged every step of the way, requiring a game three in each of their series, thus far. Well, they’ll be back in action on Thursday, playing in their fifth game three of these playoffs.

Pope got off to a quick 2-0 lead after the first frame against the Heritage Patriots, with the help of an RBI single from Buddy Floyd and sac fly off the bat of Max Pralgo. But Heritage’s Griffin Holcombe buckled down the rest of the way and actually tossed a complete game, allowing just three hits and no runs in the last six frames.

Holcombe’s work allowed for the Patriots to climb back in the ballgame and into the lead in the fourth inning. Down 2-1 at the time, Ray Joseph singled home the tying run and the rally continued when Darry Buggs backed him up with a two-run go-ahead triple to hand Heritage a 4-2 lead. They added another in the inning and two more the rest of the way all while Holcombe kept Pope tamed.

Heritage put Pope on the ropes after game one with a 7-2 win.

GAME TWO: In game two, the Greyhounds started hot only they stayed hot this time. Two runs in the first, four in the second, and three in the third was more than enough offense with Gage Vailes on the mound.

From the plate, the heartbeat of Pope, Buddy Floyd, led the way for the Greyhounds offensively. He was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and a pair of triples helped him drive in four runs. His three-run triple in the second is what put Pope into the driver’s seat with a 5-0 advantage.

From the plate, the heartbeat of Pope, Floyd, led the way for the Greyhounds offensively. He was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and a pair of triples helped him drive in four runs. His three-run triple in the second is what put Pope into the driver’s seat with a 5-0 advantage.

For Vailes, he came in clutch in a must-win game for the reigning 6A champs. He had a no-hitter entering the sixth when he got into his first jam of the day. He struck out a batter for the third out of the sixth frame to end this one early, evening the series with a Pope 11-1 win.

4A

DENMARK VS. NORTHSIDE

GAME ONE: Two cinderellas met in the 4A title series: Denmark, a first-year program fresh off an upset of one of the country’s best high school teams, and Northside, a No. 3 seed entering the postseason that also upset a top-ranked squad.

One of these teams was, unfortunately, going to run out of magic here.

And just when it felt like the Danes could do no wrong, Denmark let a seventh-inning lead slip in game one, which really doomed them.

On the other side, the Columbus-area program had been relentless all postseason. They swept Eastside, Perry, and GA Power 25-ranked Cartersville, and then beat North Oconee in three games to get to this point. If anything, we haven’t given these Patriots enough attention.

In game one, Northside just kept hanging around. It felt like it was just destiny when Denmark’s Jaxson Corr singled home first run of the game in the top of the first inning. But Northside’s Connor O’Neal singled to tie it in the second to tie it back up.

Then, in the third, Denmark sent eight to the plate and scored four runs to take a big 5-1 lead. An error helped them keep up the pressure early in the frame, and Logan DeLong and Nic Ferrer tallied back-to-back RBI hits to earn the four-run lead.

An inning later, in the bottom of the fourth, Northside tied it again. With the help of another error in the ballgame, Walt McConnell stepped into the batter’s box with the bases loaded, and his team down by three. He doubled to right and cleared the bases as a result to square things up, 5-5.

For the third time of the game, Denmark scored as soon as they could to take back the lead. Another Ferrer run-scoring single gave the Danes a 6-5 lead to hold on to with nine outs to go. Seven Patriots outs later, a double, hit by pitch, and single loaded the bases for Spencer Chandler, who flew out to center, deep enough to tie the game at six, but recorded the second out of the inning in the process. In the next at-bat, freshman Justin Veloz popped a fly ball to left that was overrun and subsequently dropped, allowing the walk-off run to come home to score, giving Northside their first – and most important – lead of the game, taking the first match-up of the series, 7-6.

GAME TWO: Denmark had been faced with adversity before, but losing in such a way is a gut punch, and Northside was looking to end it in two games.

The Patriots came out hacking, too. Three batters into the ballgame, Northside had themselves a 1-0 lead after Clayton Weaver singled home a run. A sacrifice fly later in the inning made it 2-0 before Denmark had the chance to grab a bat.

Against Northside’s Connor Sizemore, it took the Danes two-plus innings to get their first baserunner of the ballgame, and by then, it might have been too late. Earlier in that third inning, Northside took a 6-0 lead after sending 10 to the plate. Another critical error in this frame extended the inning and was directly responsible for three Northside runs.

Denmark’s bats went quiet again in the fourth and fifth and Northside all but put the game away with three straights with runners in scoring position to give the Patriots a 10-0 lead. Colton Joyner drove in his second run of the ballgame, followed by Mack Williams’ RBI double, and O’Neal’s single.

The Danes resiliently made sure that the sixth inning was not their last of the spring season. Entering the inning with one hit in the game, Denmark singled three times in the inning to score a pair of runs to force a seventh frame.

A second Denmark error played Northside’s 11th run of the game, which really embodied the tough night the Danes were enduring. A single opened the bottom of the seventh, but Sizemore earned three consecutive outs from there to complete the game and clinch his team its first-ever baseball state title. Sizemore ended the game having allowed just two runs on five hits, two walks, and he struck out six batters.

For Denmark, there’s nothing left to do but applaud the tremendous accomplishment it was to see a program, established at the start of the school year, make its way to a state title series. We witnessed some miraculous upsets along the way and it made for one of the most memorable runs in GHSA postseason history.

3A

PACE ACADEMY VS. PIKE COUNTY

GAME ONE: The 3A championship series in Macon was a meeting of a couple fresh-faced programs. It had been almost 25 years since Pace Academy last seen in a title game – since 1995 when they earned a third straight state title. And for Pike, the Pirates were seeking their program’s first-ever state championship. Both teams entered the postseason as No. 1 seeds and both teams looked dominant throughout the playoffs – Pike only lost one game and Pace had not been defeated in the postseason yet.

On paper, this was among the narrowest match-ups of all the championship series in the state, and it played out the way.

In the first game, Pace’s Andrew Jenkins homered to hand the Knights a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Pace kept that lead until the fourth frame.

In the fourth, Pike struck back and swooped in to take the lead. Coleman Boynton’s run-scoring double sparked things for the Pirates and he scored on an RBI groundout later in the inning to tie it up at three. Pike took the lead in the next at-bat on Noah Windhorst’s single to left, but that lead didn’t last long.

A Pirates error with the bases loaded and one away tied the game back up, but Pirates starter Coleman Crow struck out back-to-back batters to end the threat right there, to keep his team even on runs.

This game needed extras and Crow was willing to oblige. With two outs in the eighth, and at 124 pitches, Crow was relieved by Boynton, who pitched over a walk to keep the game tied. Crow finished the game having allowed three earned runs on eight hits, one walk, and he struck out 13 batters.

In the bottom of the inning, three Pike singles ended it. Boynton, who finished the job in the eighth, wrapped up the ballgame for good with the bases loaded. He grounded a hard chopper to the third baseman who couldn’t corral the tough play, allowing the walk-off run to score, giving the Pirates a 5-4 game one win in the process.

GAME TWO: Yet again, these two teams required extra innings. After a quiet start to the game, there was some serious drama at the end, only to see another big eighth inning from the Pirates bats pay off.

Pike’s starter Windhorst and Pace’s Brian Zeldin both pitched around a little trouble here and there through three frames to keep the game scoreless, but it caught up with Pace in the fourth.

After a passed ball scored the game’s first run, Crow helped his team yet again, this time with the bat, and singled home the Pirates’ second run of the game to give them the 2-0 lead. A Marsh Burford double in the fifth made it 3-0, too.

Meanwhile, Pace Academy was creating opportunities, but lacking that clutch hit to get them on the board. And the Knights needed to do something about it quickly because the game was slowly getting away from them. Finally, in the sixth frame, a Pace sac fly plated their first run, and brought them within two, 3-1.

Facing the reality of the last three outs of their season, Pace opened the half-inning by loading the bases, which prompted a Pike pitching change. Chad Davis took the mound in relief and struck out the first batter he faced, providing Pike with some hope that they’d be able to wiggle out of the jam. But, another passed ball, and an error on a fly ball to right evened the game up at three. Davis was able, however, to keep the score right there, taking us to our second extra-inning game of the day.

With one out in the eighth, Pike loaded the bases and Crow was hit by a pitch to score the go-ahead run. After a strikeout, a clutch Dylan Garner single scored a pair of insurance runs for the Pirates. Another run scored in the half-inning on an error, giving Pike a 7-3 lead in extras.

Davis took the mound again in the bottom of the eighth and got into a little trouble. Pace scored a run to make it 7-4 and then re-loaded the bases to send the walk-off run to the plate with two outs. But Davis coaxed a fly ball out to right to end the game and seal Pike’s first baseball title in its program’s history.

2A

ROCKMART VS. JEFF DAVIS

GAME THREE: We covered games one and two from this series in Tuesday’s recap story, so click on that hyperlink if you need to remember how we got here.

Anyway, game three lived up to the lofty expectations we set for it. After nearly striking first in the bottom of the second inning, Jeff Davis plated the game’s first run in the bottom of the third with the help of Hamp Hayes, who was a big factor in the first two games of this series. His RBI single made it a 1-0 lead for Davis and, with the way starter Garrison Miles was dodging barrels, you wondered how long they’d be able to cling to that.

Miles did not record a strike out in the ballgame – and he didn’t need to. He tightroped through a few sticky situations, but Rockmart just couldn’t come up with a clutch hit with runners on to find their way on the scoreboard.

A Caleb Chaney run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth felt really important, and allowed Miles to breathe just a little easier. And in the top of the seventh, after a lead-off walk, Miles settled back in and got three consecutive outs to earn Jeff Davis their second state title in three years.

1A PUBLIC

SCHLEY COUNTY VS. GORDON LEE

GAME THREE: Again, we covered games one and two of this series in Tuesday’s recap, so visit the previous hyperlink to learn about what it took to get to this final game of the series. Unfortunately, neither team scored this game digitally, so all we can share with you is the final score: Gordon Lee won its second straight state title with a 9-3 game three win over Schley County.

1A PRIVATE

TATTNALL SQUARE ACADEMY VS. SAVANNAH CHRISTIAN

GAME ONE: The Tattnall Square Trojans were one of the most dominant teams inside their 1A Private class and they ultimately cruised to a second straight state championship after overwhelming the 2017 1A Private champs, Savannah Christian.

The first game of the series was tight through the first three-and-a-half frames, and Savannah Christian actually struck first in the top of the first on an error in the outfield. As it turned out, that would be the final time that the Raiders would touch home on Wednesday.

It took until the second, but Tattnall’s Miles Morris doubled home the tying run. The game stayed that way until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Trojans exploded, offensively. Tattnall Square loaded the bases right away in the frame and scored their next three runs on a sac fly and three walks. With two outs, Carter Fink and Brett McHugh both recorded back-to-back RBI singles to give the Trojans a commanding 7-1 lead. Hunter Alexander’s two-run single in the fifth extended the lead and Tattnall Square tacked on another two in the seventh to put it away.

Brooks Gorman starred on the mound for the Trojans, having allowed one run on seven scattered hits, no walks, and he struck out four in six innings of work. He was also 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI in the middle of TSA’s order.

For Savannah Christian, Jarrett Brown and Cameron Crosby had five of their team’s seven hits, but neither were ever able to score in the game.

Tattnall Square claimed game one, 11-1, and was just a game away from earning a second straight state championship.

GAME TWO: Frankly, the second game of this series looked a lot like the first, except this time Savannah Christian never had a claim of the lead. B.J. Spears and Tattnall Square scored the game’s first run on his RBI single in the second, while starter Dawson Brown pitched around some command issues to keep the Raiders off the scoreboard.

After getting the first two outs in the top of the fourth inning, Savannah Christian allowed TSA to restart the inning with a Bo Hatcher single and a walk to Spears. An error in the outfield dealt a big blow to the Raiders, too. That miscue allowed another couple of runs to score, in a game where Tattnall Square didn’t need the extra hand, and Savannah Christian couldn’t afford it.

Brown got into trouble in the bottom half of the inning but was able to maneuver out of a huge opportunity for the Raiders to cut into the deficit, one that quickly grew to 6-0 in the next half-inning.

RBI hits from Fink and Kaden Toth furthered Tattnall Square’s grip on the lead. Finally, a five-run seventh inning turned it into an 11-0 Tattnall lead, capped by a three-run double off the bat of Trey Ham.

Fink had relieved Brown back at the start of the fifth inning and he got the job done the rest of the way, sealing the 11-0 championship-clinching victory. He prevented Savannah Christian from scoring in his three innings of relief work, helping his team combine to shut out the only team standing in their way of consecutive 1A Private titles.

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