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Local teams begin state playoff play

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

The state baseball playoffs will begin this Friday and for Starr’s Mill, the region 4-AAAAA champions, their opponent will be the Riverdale Raiders. Though the Raiders closed out their season with a 7-4 region win over Lithonia, they have struggled against other teams with a number of their losses being double digit losses. They have also aced several oponents that Starr’s Mill has also faced this year. The Raiders lost to McIntosh (11-1), beat Mundy’s Mill (5-3) and split with Union Grove (7-2 loss, 8-6 win). The Panthers swept Union Grove and Mundy’s Mill and beat McIntosh 13-6.

Starr’s Mill (20-4) is likely better than last year’s squad which made it deep into last year’s AAAAA state playoffs. The Panthers have benefitted from strong starting pitching and any of their hurlers are capable of being incredibly dominant and nearly unhittable. They also have a strong offense that puts the ball in play, runs the bases well and capitalizes on team’s mistakes. The Panthers marched through their region schedule undefeated and haven’t lost since a 6-4 loss to Hardaway on March 26. In that span they have scored well over a hundred runs and have given up less than 30.

The games will take place at Starr’s Mill tomorrow at 4 and 7 p.m. The third game will take place Friday at 4 p.m. if needed.

Fayette County (19-7) will travel to take on the Redan Raiders this week. The Tigers started the season strong, winning their first 10 games and hitting a ton. After opening the region schedule with four straight wins the Tigers hit a few bumps. They were swept by Starr’s Mill and Union Grove, leading to some brief losing streaks and halting the team’s momentum. When the Tigers score, they still can put up some big numbers. In fact, in over 10 of their wins they scored 10 runs or more but in a number of their losses they have given up over five runs. With good starting pitching and hot bats, the Tigers can be a tough opponent for anybody.

“I think if we stay focused, we should do well in the playoffs,” said Coach Robert Townsend.

Redan (17-7-1) closed the season with a 10-3 loss to Lakeside-DeKalb but they had win streaks of three, four and five games this season. In 10 of their wins they scored over 10 runs and three of those wins were shutouts. Redan went 12-2 in the region.