By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Region play in high school baseball began last week and the local teams are starting to get into the swing of things.

Fayette County faced Carver last Wednesday after losing their first region match last week. The Tigers seemed to have everything back in control as they cruised to a 16-6 victory in five innings. Carver struck first with two runs in the top of the first, but Fayette County came back and led 10-2 by the third inning. The score was 15-2 in the fourth and 16-6 in the fifth when the game was called.

Eric Barnes was the starting pitcher for the Tigers. He struck out three, walked one, gave up no hits and no earned runs. Craig Barron came in to pitch the third and fourth inning for Fayette County, striking out two and walking three. Lee Roberson led the team offensively going 2-for-2 at the plate and driving in four RBIs. Catcher Drew Furey drove in two runs while going 3-for-4 at the plate. Christian Wahiwe also produced two RBIs.

Fayette played against Upson-Lee last Friday and won by a score of 7-4. The Tigers trailed by a score of 4-1 before rallying for five runs in the fifth inning. Pitching duties were split between Brad Burns, who started, and Lee Roberson, who came in with some outstanding relief. The Tigers will face East Coweta in Sharpsburg today at 4:15 p.m.

McIntosh met up with East Coweta last week and won by a score of 5-2. The Chiefs struck first with two runs in the first but the Indians tied the game in the second inning. The Chiefs took the lead in the third inning and kept it, thanks to the pitching of Tom Giovanelli. McIntosh got great offense from Mike Walliser who went 3-for-4 and scored each time he reached base and Patrick Dickson who drove in two RBIs.

McIntosh then played against LaGrange on Friday and won by a score of 5-3. The Chiefs scored all five runs in the top half of the first half of the inning and then got the pitching and defense to hold the Grangers off. McIntosh will play at Upson-Lee today at 4:30 p.m.

Starr's Mill opened up their regional play against Eagle's Landing and lost by a score of 14-3. Both teams produced eight hits but the Panthers committed six errors. Pitcher Steve White gave up eight runs in five innings but only four of those runs were earned. Starr's Mill then lost to Jonesboro by a score of 3-1 on Friday, despite a strong outing from pitcher Joe Mahfood. The Panthers only produced three hits in the loss.

Sandy Creek opened their regional play against Forest park and won very quickly. The Patriots produced 15 runs on 14 hits. Pitcher Tim Lavoie faced 11 batters, threw 40 pitches, gave up one hit and struck out two batters as Sandy Creek cruised to a 15-0 victory. Lavoie also produced some big offense for the team, hitting a two run homerun in the third inning. Rusty Bennett also knocked out a two run homer in the Patriots nine run third inning.