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Three local teams advance in state baseball playoffs

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

The baseball playoffs began last week and three local teams; Fayette County, Landmark Christian and Starr’s Mill all advanced to the sweet 16 in their respective classifications.

Fayette County’s Tigers (21-8) outlasted Redan in a wild three game series. They won game one by a score of 10-0 with Phillip Robinson pitching a complete game in five innings for the win. The game also served as in indication tat the Tiger bats were going to be fairly hot as Brent Moss, Drew Ward and Ri’Chard Davis all hit home runs in the game. In game two, Fayette County built a 5-3 lead in the fourth inning but Redan piled on some runs and the Fayette County players looked, according to coach Robert Townsend, “sapped by the sun.” Fayette County pitched four players in the loss and pitched four more the next day when they picked up a 16-13 win in the third and deciding game.

Moss started with Matt Clark, Travis Holt and Robinson following. Holt picked up the win and Robinson got the save. The Tigers trailed Redan 8-1 in the fourth inning but got 10 runs with two outs to take an 11-8 lead. Davis hit a two run home run in the game and Ricky Williams hit a three run home run, generating some much needed offense for the win.

The win advanced Fayette County to the second round where they will face Camden County (15-11) on the road today at 5 p.m. The if game will be scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. The winner of this series will take on the winner of the Lassiter/Centennial series on the road next Tuesday.

Starr’s Mill (22-4) advanced to the second round by blanking Riverdale 10-0 in the first game and 12-0 in the second game. All four Panther pitchers combined their efforts to keep the Raiders off the board. Nick Terry went four innings in the first game, allowing three hits and striking out four, while Nation threw two innings, gave up one hit and struck out two.

Kory Ison drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning, while Jimmy Tanner scored the second run on a wild pitch in the second. Riverdale’s pitcher had control problems in the third and Ben Baker and Philip Shell scored after being hit by a pitch and a walk respectively. Kyle McCreary drove in the final run of the inning. In the fourth, Ison drove in two more runs with an RBI double and Ryan Lockett drove in one more with an RBI single. In the sixth, Lockett hit an RBI triple and Baker scored the 10th and final run on a balk.

In the second game, Starr’s Mill got started right away with Andrew Robinson, Ison and Tanner each driving in a run. The Panthers would add four more in the second as McCreary drove in two runs with a single and Joey Lewis and Carter Scurry each drove in a run. Lewis would hit a home run in the fourth and T.J. Stillwell, Scurry, tanner and Lockett would drive in the fnal four runs to give the Panthers the series win.

Robinson threw three innings of one hit ball, striking out four batters, while Stillwell threw two innings, striking out one and allowing only one hit.

Starr’s Mill will host Glynn Academy in a doubleheader beginning today at 4 p.m. The if game will be tomorrow at 4 p.m if necessary. The Glynn Academy Terror (17-10) have made the state playoffs the previous four years but had been knocked out in the first round all of those years.

The winner of this series will play at the winner of the Parkview/Norcross series next Tuesday.

In Class A tournament action, Landmark Christian faced Aquinas last week. They lost the first game 8-6 but won the next two games. In the second game, the War Eagles won 21-6 and then won the third game 17-7. In the three game series, Landmark had 53 hits, 44 runs and five home runs, which is amazing considering that in the previous 23 games during the 2005 season the team only had five home runs.

Senior Rome Smith caught fire during the series, going 8-for-11 with two home runs and two doubles. Miles King also had an outstanding series, going 7-for-13 with three triples, two doubles and one home run.

Landmark Christian (15-11) hosts Gordon Lee (19-9) today in a double header starting at 2 p.m. These two teams faced off on March 12 of this year with Landmark winning 8-3. The winner of this series will take on the winner of the Atkinson County/Brookstone series on the road next Tuesday.