The Class AAAAAA baseball semifinals have two East Cobb teams (Walton, Pope), the No. 1-ranked team (Parkview) and another Cobb County team looking for its first state title (Kennesaw Mountain).
Here's a quick look at how each got through its quarterfinal series this week.
I'll take a look a different classification each day through Monday, when the semifinal series begin.
Parkview
Parkview catcher Austin Biggar came up big in the quarterfinal sweep of Etowah. Biggar, who bats cleanup, hit a three-run home run in Game 1, a 4-2 victory. Parkview trailed 2-1 at the time. In Game 2, Biggar hit a solo shot in the seventh inning for a 3-1 lead. Parkview won 3-2. Parkview has allowed only five runs in six playoff games, all victories. Ryne Inman, the Game 2 winner, has allowed two earned runs in 18 innings. Parkview (30-2) is in the semifinals for the fifth straight season and won titles in 2011 and 2012. Whitewater (AAAA) is the only other school with a streak of five semis.
Pope
Braden Zarbinsky is playing like a tournament MVP for Pope (24-7). He’s been the winning pitcher in three games and has 28 strikeouts in 19 innings. At the plate, he was 5-for-7 with two RBI and two stolen bases in the 6-1, 5-4 sweep this week of Collins Hill. Zarbinsky has signed with West Virginia. Cameron Allison, who is committed to Auburn, has allowed only three hits and struck out 14 in 11.2 innings in the playoffs. Pope, which plays Parkview next, lost in the first round last season but was the Class AAAAA champion in 2013.
Kennesaw Mountain
Kennesaw Mountain is averaging 9.0 runs per game in the playoffs (63 in nine) and showed its offense again this week with a 10-1 victory over North Gwinnett in Game 3 of their quarterfinal series. Third baseman Zach Teem was 5-for-10 with two doubles in the series. Right fielder and cleanup hitter Terence Norman was 6-for-11. First baseman Patrick Martin was 4-for-10 with a double. In the finale, Matt Cole pitched a complete game and struck out seven. In the Game 1 victory, Ryley Gilliam pitched a complete game, allowing one earned run and striking out nine. Kennesaw Mountain is the only school remaining in the AAAAAA semifinals that has never won a state title in baseball. The Mustangs were runners-up to Walton in 2007.
Walton
The Walton-Mountain View series, won by Walton in an 8-7 Game 3 victory on Wednesday, had its special moments. In Game 2, Mountain View’s Robert Kwiatkowski hit a two-run, two-out double for a walk-off 4-3 victory. Kwiatkowski also was the winning pitcher. In Game 3, Kwiatkowski hit a 3-run home run to bring Kennesaw Mountain within 8-7 with no outs in the seventh, but Walton’s Jason Rooks got the final three in order to close it. Rooks also was 3-for-3 at the plate with two doubles. Rooks, one of the top class-of-2017 prospects in the country, was 2-for-3 with a double and a homer in the Game 1 victory.
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