The first round of the state baseball playoffs are in the books. There were five significant upsets defined as road teams beating top-10 teams.
Here is a recap of those. The second round begins Thursday.
*North Paulding came from 6-1 down in the final inning of the final game to stun ninth-ranked Walton on the road in Class AAAAAAA. North (20-12) also won Game 2 in comeback fashion, winning 3-2 in 10 innings. But first, Game 3: The Wolfpack scored five in the top of the seventh, when Walton pitchers got wild, walking three batters and hitting another. Collin O’Neal, who went 3-for-4, hit a critical two-run double in the big inning. In the eighth, North scored the go-ahead run when Walton hit another batter with the bases loaded. Then, North third baseman Cole Dunn lined into a triple play to left field to end the inning. North reliever Alex Poff retired Walton in order in the bottom half to end the game. Poff was the winning pitcher in Game 2, when he threw the final two innings, striking out four. The game-winner came when Peyton Mosely singled to left, scoring Dunn in walk-off style in a 3-2 victory.
*Defending AAAAAAA champion Etowah swept fifth-ranked Hillgrove, the Region 3 champion, 11-5 and 6-1. Jackson Sisk was 4-for-5 with two home runs and two doubles in the opener. Nick Torres struck out 14 and allowed just three hits in Game 2. Bryant Madden was 2-for-3 with a homer. Etowah entered the series 16-14, the fourth-place finisher in Region 4.
*Valdosta beat eighth-ranked Glynn Academy 5-3 and 10-0. Valdosta’s Jude Ard pitched a five-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in the final game. Colby Thomas homered in both games. Avery Stephens was the winning pitcher and homered in Game 1.
*Spalding trailed 5-0 in the third inning of Game 2, having lost Game 1, but roared back to upset Region 1-AAAA champion Northside-Columbus. The final scores were 2-8, 5-1 and 3-1. Wesley Hancock pitched a three-hitter and struck out 10 in Game 3. But Game 2 was the turning point. Down five, Spalding but put up a four spot in the third, helped by Wesley Hancock’s two-run homer, and added three more in the fourth and held on. Chase Coppock overcame the slow start and pitched four scoreless frames to finish it off.
*Rabun County – only 10-16 in the regular season – upset seventh-ranked Rockmart 3-0 and 3-1 on the road. In Game 1, Grayson Lane allowed four hits and no runs over six innings, with eight strikeouts, and Jonathan Henson closed it with a hitless inning of relief with two strikeouts. In Game 2, Chase Horton pitched a four-hitter with 10 strikeouts. Horton also had a two-run single in the first inning, when Rabun took a 3-0 lead.
