2018 GHSA Baseball Championship | Rome

GHSA 2018 STATE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS | STATE MUTUAL STADIUM - ROME | CLASS 4A & 6A

GHSA PAST CHAMPIONS

WORD FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

GREETINGS, GHSA BASEBALL FANS

W

elcome to the 2018 GHSA Baseball Championships presented by Mizuno! The games are sure to be exciting as all of the schools represented are looking forward to their team achieving the title of “Champion.” However, we all know that all of our teams are outstanding and are definitely winners. This has been an outstanding season and this year’s championship games will include familiar faces as well as teams that have worked hard and peaked at just the right time. Our congratulations are in order for all of the teams, coaches, administrators, students and parents who have supported the athletes through this year’s journey to the final games. I know you will enjoy and appreciate the games and all of the work leading up to this exciting event.

I would also like to thank you for your support of high school baseball throughout the season. Your attendance and support is integral to the success of high school athletics and for the team you are here to cheer on. Good sportsmanship is expected from our athletes and I urge you to be positive in your support of all of our teams. Let’s work together to make today’s games a great experience for all involved.

To put on an event of this magnitude takes many volunteers who have worked tirelessly to pro-

vide a “first class” event. Many hours of work from this group will enhance the experience of our players, students and fans. The GHSA staff and championship sites have been working for weeks as well to ensure a special event for all involved. Appreciation to our host stadiums of the Rome Braves, University of Georgia, Savannah Bananas and Mercer University.

Finally I would like to thank our corporate sponsors who make it possible to put on these championships. Their advertisements can be seen throughout this venue and I encourage you to support them whenever possible. The GHSA wants to thank these exemplary companies for their involvement, we appreciate their support.

Thank you for your attendance and I know you are going to enjoy the best high school baseball anywhere!

Sincerely,

James R. Hines, Jr. Executive Director

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T

he 2018 Georgia High School Association Baseball State Championship Guide is published

by Score Atlanta, in conjunction with the GHSA. The guide was designed by Rhonda Rawls, the Managing Editor is Craig Sager II, Seth Ellerbee and Alex Ewalt assisted in the editing process. The information was provided by the GHSA. Photos on the cover are courtesy of Cecil Copeland (Pope & Gordon Lee), Kim Finch Withrown (Westminster), Wenda G Bailey (Berrien), Cartersville Daily Tribune News (Cartersville) and Parkview Baseball. For more information on Score Atlanta, go to ScoreAtl.com or call 404-256-1572.

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Year AAAA 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Newton Co. 1980 Griffin 1981 Lowndes 1982 Coffee 1983 Coffee 1984 Columbus 1985 Forest Park 1986 Brookwood 1987 McEachern 1988 Evans 1989 Evans 1990 Evans 1991 Newnan 1992 Walton 1993 Evans 1994 Evans 1995 Sprayberry 1996 Parkview 1997 Colquilt Co. 1998 Harrison 1999 Lassiter 2000 Lowndes

AAA Dykes Jordan Sequoyah Glynn Henderson Wheeler Savannah Kendrick Valdosta Winder-Barrow Coffee Marist NW Whitfield Marist Marist Marist Roswell Westside Westside Jones Co. Marist Columbus Columbus Columbus Marist Columbus Columbus Columbus Greenbrier Greenbrier Columbus

Year AAAAA 2001 Parkview 2002 Parkview 2003 Colquilt Co. 2004 Milton 2005 Chattahoochee 2006 Lassiter 2007 Walton

2008 Brookwood 2009 Pope 2010 Harrison 2011 Parkview 2012 Parkview Year 2013 2014 2015 2016

AAAAAA Milton Lambert Parkview Walton

Year 2017

AAAAAAA Etowah

AAAAA Pope Houston Co. Greenbrier Houston Co. AAAAAA Pope

AA Pepperell Lakeview Lakeview Stephens Co. Calhoun Westminster Bradwell Institute Marist Gainesville Harlem Pepperell Harlem Harlem Harlem Darlington Hancock Central Harlem Shiloh Berrien Washington-Wilkes Lovett Perry Cook Lovett Lovett Vidalia Gainesville Gainesville Gainesville Thomasville Cook

A B Americus Roswell Roswell Wheeler Co. Hephzibah West Point Irwin Co. Trion Harlem West Point Irwin Co. GACS Mt. de Sales GMI Pepperell Buford Harlem ML de Sales Gordon Lee Mt. de Sales Brookstone GACS Trion Gordon Lee Calhoun Co. Clinch Co. Clinch Co. Towns Co. Clinch Co. Bremen Clinch Co. Clinch Co. Pace Acad.

Pace Acad.

Pace Acad.

Toombs Co. Irwin Co. North Forsyth Lovett Calhoun

AAAA Shaw Marist Marist Columbus Henry Co. Greenbrier Greenbrier

AAA Gainesville Gainesville Cartersville LaGrange Columbus Blessed Trinity Dunwoody

AA Cartersville Cartersville Vidalia Bacon Co. Calhoun Lovett Holy Innocents’

A Walker Walker Clinch Co. Lakeview Acad.

Calvary Day ELCA Calvary Day

Loganville Northgate Marist Marist Loganville

Cartersville Cartersville Columbus Columbus Columbus

Wesleyan Lovett Calhoun Buford Appling County

Pacelli Wesleyan Wesleyan Hebron Chr. Providence Chr.

AAAA Redan Carrollton Buford Locust Grove

AAAAA Loganville

AAAA Marist

AAA Cartersville Blessed Trinity Blessed Trinity Westminster AAA North Hall

AA Lovett Benedictine Wesleyan Lovett

Class A-Private ELCA King’s Ridge King’s Ridge Tattnall Square

AA Jeff Davis

Class A-Private Savannah Christian

Class A-Public Charlton Co. Charlton Co. Schley Co. Treutlen Class A-Public Schley Co.

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C Clay Co. Mt. de Sales Mt. de Sales

MAY 21-23, 2018

GHSA BASEBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

POPE PRIMED TO DEFEND TITLE; JEFFERSON PULLS OFF SEMIS SHOCKER TO TAKE ON CARTERSVILLE

BY ALEX EWALT | AEWALT@SCOREATL.COM

he Class AAAA chamT pionship series pits surprise finalist Jefferson, the

No. 1 seed out of Region 8, against Cartersville, the top seed out of Region 5. The Dragons come in at 26-11 overall (ranked No. 6 by the AJC heading into the playoffs) and fresh off one of the biggest playoff upsets in recent memory after defeating preseason favorite Blessed Trinity. The Purple Hurricanes sit at 31-8 overall (No. 2 after the regular season) and dispatched a strong Heritage-Catoosa team in the semifinals. Cartersville seeks its seventh all-time state title, and Jefferson is looking for its first. Neither team made it out of the first round of the playoffs in 2017; in fact, Jefferson fell to Heritage and Cartersville fell to Blessed Trinity last spring. The teams have not met this season.

Jefferson shocked Blessed Trinity, which had spent all season at No. 1 in the state and was ranked as high as No. 1 nationally by certain publications, with a clean road sweep in the semifinals, 10-7 and 2-0. The Dragons got a five-hit shutout from pitcher Lane Watkins in Game 2, as two fourth-inning runs were

enough to seal the series victory. In Game 1, Jefferson held on for the 10-7 win after jumping out to a 7-1 advantage after five innings. Zac Corbin provided the offense in the tone-setting win, going 3-for-4 with a home run as well as scoring twice and knocking in three RBIs. Justin Cole added two hits, one run and an RBI, and Mason Cooper had two hits and scored two runs in Game 1. Jefferson lost in the state finals in 2015 but will be looking to follow up its eye-opening semifinals win with a championship this time around.

Standing in Jefferson’s way is Cartersville, a team that was ranked No. 3 in the preseason poll (Jefferson was unranked to start the year). The Purple Hurricanes have survived one three-game series, against Marist in the second round as Cartersville took Game 1 111, lost Game 2 4-3 and again routed the War Eagles 10-2 in the rubber match. In the semifinals, Cartersville survived a tough 6-5 Game 1 victory over Heritage-Catoosa before prevailing 10-2 in Game 2 for the sweep. Cartersville defeated the top team from Region 6 in a back-and-forth first game that saw the Canes take a 3-2 lead after a big bottom half of

the first inning. Senior star Anthony Seigler, a Florida commit who could also be a high draft pick next month, got the win in relief and scored the go-ahead run for the Canes in the first game. He came up big again in Game 2 by hitting a solo home run and again scoring the go-ahead run, this time breaking a 2-2 tie in what would become a five-run sixth inning that gave the Canes a 7-2 advantage. Seigler was 6-for-7 in the series.

POPE SEEKS REPEAT The Pope Greyhounds will look to defend their 2017 state title, the third trophy in the program’s history, all since 2009 (2013 was their second). The team comes into the final series 32-7 and entered the playoffs at No. 1, eventually meeting preseason No. 1 River Ridge for the right to play for a championship. In the semifinal series, Pope, the top seed out of Region 7, got a home doubleheader sweep after exploding for 24 hits combined in the 9-5 and 10-3 victories. In both games, Pope jumped out to leads in the first inning: 4-1 in Game 1 and 3-0 in Game 2. The Greyhounds swept River Ridge in the semis last year as well. Antonio Jareno gave Pope a 5-3 Game 1

lead with a leadoff home run in the fifth inning, and then the Greyhounds iced it with a four-run sixth. Max Pralgo got the Game 1 win after giving up three runs in six innings.

In Game 2, Pope added to its early lead with two runs in the third inning to take a 5-0 advantage and got four insurance runs in the top of the seventh to bring the game to its final 10-3 score. Scotty LeSieur got the win in Game 2.

Allatoona reached the state finals with a series win over Alpharetta; the Buccaneers won Game 3 8-1 on Thursday night at the Perfect Game complex at LakePoint to advance. The Bucs, the No. 1 seed out of Region 6, enter the finals with a 33-7 record and have gone through one other three-game series in the postseason, to Grovetown in the quarterfinals, after losing Game 1 7-0.

Allatoona’s Hunter Paulsen got the 5-2 Game 1 win against Alpharetta last Tuesday, as he allowed nine hits but just the two runs on two solo homers.

The Bucs scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to pull ahead. Allatoona took Game 3 late Thursday after falling 8-5 in Game 2.

Photos courtesy of Cartersville Daily Tribune News and Cecil Copeland.

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GHSA 2018 STATE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS | STATE MUTUAL STADIUM - ROME | CLASS 4A & 6A

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MAY 21-23, 2018

CHAMPIONSHIP BASEBALL ROSTERS & SCHEDULE CLASS 4A Kolby Adams John Reed Evans Noah Davis Reece Thompson Brant Smith Jake Gooch Levi Ayers Cohen Wilbanks LaDarius Winburn Thomas Murphy Davis Williams J.P. Martin Mason Barnett Josh Mayo Anthony Seigler Chandler Tromza Curtis Wilkes Gage Morris Mason McBee Preston Welchel Alan Thacker Jordan Wilkie Ian Inaba Devin Warner Garrett Shelton Jake Norris Josh Davis Jackson Norris

11 12 11 11 11 12 12 11 12 11 9 11 11 12 12 10 12 11 9 11 10 11 11 12 12 12 10 9

Cartersville vs Jefferson

5/21 (DH) 5:00pm, 7:30pm; *Game 3 5/23 TBD

6A

Allatoona vs Pope

5/22 (DH) 5:00pm, 7:30pm; *Game 3 5/23 TBD

JEFFERSON DRAGONS Head Coach: Tommy Knight

CARTERSVILLE PURPLE HURRICANES Head Coach: Kyle Tucker 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 11 12 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 22 23 26 27 28 30 31 32 33 34 35 40

4A

OF/P IF IF P IF IF/P/C P/OF C/P IF OF IF/P P/C/IF/OF P/IF OF P/C/IF/OF IF P P/IF IF/P OF/P C/P IF OF/P IF OF/P P IF C/IF

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 24

Brycen Jewell Colby Clark Hart Blackstock Cole Watkins Garrett Catanach Patrick Hickox Vinny Farley Derek Vaughn Mason Cooper Trey McEver Clayton Jones Sammy Elegreet Billy Finch Zac Corbin Drew Everett Ryan Godfrey Will Wood J.J. Rapp Justin Cole Rem Maxwell Lane Watkins Kade McNally

10 10 12 9 11 12 11 9 9 10 12 11 12 11 10 11 12 9 12 9 11 10

P/C OF 2B SS OF P P/1B P C P/3B 3B OF INF P/INF 1B 1B P 2B OF P/OF P/C OF

3

Alex Tansey

12

2B

5

Evan O’brien

11

RHP

6

Nathan Bourne

12

RHP

7

Sloan Burt

11

RHP

8

Payton Eeles

12

2B, SS

9

Matt Martin

12

OF, LHP

10

Dalton Halyard

12

RHP, OF

11

Kyle Reichert

11

12

Brett Blomquist

9

15

Blake Evans

12

17

Fisher Paulsen

9

LHP, OF

18

Rett Russell

12

RHP, OF

19

Noah Mahr

11

LHP

20

Hunter Woodall

12

RHP LHP, OF

LHP, 1B C, UTIL, RHP SS, RHP

22

Morgan Bell

12

24

Simon Aluko

10

OF

25

Bryce Thompson

11

1B, RHP, RHP

26

Hunter Paulsen

9

LHP, 1B, OF

27

Tyler Shultz

11

OF, 2B, RHP

30

Zach Popilek

11

LHP

CLASS 6A

31

Tyler Messick

11

3B, INF

33

David Smith

12

C, 1B, 3B

ALLATOONA BUCCANEERS Head Coach: Keith Hansen

34

Sam Worthan

11

LF, RF

39

Stephen Scott

11

OF

1

Tristen Carroll

11

RHP

42

Greg Boland

12

C, 1B, RHP

2

Payton Bradley

11

P, 2B

44

Chaz Phillips

12

LHP

99

Logan Mcguire

9

RHP, UTIL

POPE GREYHOUNDS Head Coach: Jeff Rowland 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Buddy Floyd Max Pralgo Ethan Rezendes Will Lantis Tommy Hutchins James Tibbs Nate Shipley Caden Smith Reid Robertson Harris East Jackson Brown Noah Estroff Connor Frost Grayson Caldwell Blake Redman Andrew Herlitz Peyton Cariaco Scotty LeSieur Andrew Feld Antonio Jareno Jordan Butler Sammy Cohen Ian Hancock Luke Schnurr Andrew Bowman Cooper Krause Jackson Hvizdak

11 11 11 11 11 9 10 11 10 12 10 12 12 12 10 11 9 12 11 12 12 11 11 11 11 10 9

INF INF/P P OF INF/P OF OF/P IB/C OF/P P C P INF/OF C INF P P P OF INF P OF OF P P C C

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GHSA 2018 STATE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS | STATE MUTUAL STADIUM - ROME | CLASS 4A & 6A

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