Newnan’s pitching subdues Houston County in sweep for Class 5A baseball title

Newnan leaned on its one-two pitching punch to stymie Houston County’s prolific bats and brought home the school’s first state baseball championship since 1991 with a two-game sweep Monday.

The Cougars won the first game, 3-1, and dominated the nightcap, 11-1, to win the best-of-three series and claim the Class 5A championship at Coolray Field.

“Today is great,” Newnan coach Marc Gilmore said. “We’ve done it the right way for a long time. Today, we were rewarded for it. We don’t have kids transfer. We don’t have kids move in. This is our community. This is our school. These kids go to middle schools. They come to our school. That makes it really special.”

It was the third state title for Newnan (32-5). Houston County (33-7), the champion in 2023, lost in the final series for the first time in five tries.

“I’ve been part of the baseball program for the last five years and our goal has always been to win a state championship,” shortstop Dax Kilby said. “It’s just awesome and to be with all these guys that we’ve grown so close together, it’s just amazing. It’s the best way to win your senior year.”

Houston County entered the game on a 15-game winning streak and had scored nine or more runs in 19 games. But Newnan starters Hayes Maginnis and Jaden Hill limited the Bears to just 11 hits over 12 innings.

“That’s the biggest thing,” Gilmore said. “Our guys will compete. And it all starts on the mound. That’s probably our biggest strength. Next is our defense and we’ve got a lot of hitting, but it starts with our pitching. That’s been our strength all year.”

In the first game, Maginnis did a masterful job mixing his upper-80s fastball with a deceptive off-speed pitch, and lived on the corners. He pitched a complete game and allowed one run on seven hits and two walks, with 10 strikeouts, including the first five batters he faced.

Twice Maginnis pitched out of trouble with runners at second and third. He worked around a leadoff double in the sixth. Catcher Reid Davis threw out a runner trying to steal in the fifth and the Cougars did not commit an error.

Will Allen took the loss in the first game. He pitched six innings and allowed six hits, three walks and struck out four. He allowed three runs, only one of them earned and made a throwing error that allowed a run to score.

Newnan scored twice in the third on a sacrifice fly from Maginnis and an RBI single from Brodie Campbell.

Houston County’s lone run came in the fourth when Isaiah Galason hit a long homer to left-center.

In the second game, Newnan scored once in the first and three times -one on a squeeze bunt executed by Cole Gilmore, son of the coach -- in the third to chase starter Max Willhide. The Bears put the game away in the fourth by sending 13 players to the plate and scoring seven times, with Maginnis providing a key two-run single to prolong the rally.

Hill pitched all five innings in the game shortened because of the 10-run rule. He allowed one run on four hits, two walks and five strikeouts.

The players afterward gave credit to the spiritual aspect of the team.

“I think this is the most faith-oriented team that I’ve ever been a part of,” Cole Gilmore said. “We have Bible studies after practice once a week, and there’s so many guys that have reached out that they wanted that in their life. And I think that’s part of the reason we won.”

The state title was the first for Gilmore, whose wife Carrie took the school’s softball team to the title in 2023. Gilmore faces heart surgery in the off-season; he spent 12 days in the hospital earlier this spring.

“Congratulations to Newnan,” Houston coach Matt Hopkins said. “I think that they’d seen the talk that we were ranked No. 1 and they weren’t. And a lot of people telling them probably that, you know, we were the team that was the favorite, and they came out and they gave us everything we wanted and more, and I just thought they executed better.”

Game 1 boxscore: