There is just over a month left until the 2021 GHSA baseball season crowns its state champions and the final stretch of the regular season will be played out in the next week. As far as the trends that we have already witnessed this season, it has been made clear that Buford is currently the team to beat in a loaded Class 6A that houses several other teams that are garnering national attention. The Wolves closed out their regular season with three-straight shutout victories and are the No. 1 ranked team in the nation over Winder-Barrow and will take on the Bulldoggs again on Friday with an opportunity to sweep the series. Buford’s latest win was a 4-0 victory over Grayson. This was the first and only time that the two Gwinnett powerhouses are set to meet this season.
Buford is 29-0 record and has outscored its opponents 225-23 with 18 shutout victories on the season. The other program making serious noise in Class 6A is Carrollton, which is 26-3 and has only lost to one in-state opponent so far (2-1 loss to East Paulding).
In Class 7A, Brookwood and Grayson were tabbed for Game 3 of their regular season series this Friday. No. 1 ranked Grayson took Monday’s contest 6-1 before No. 8 ranked Brookwood answered with a 5-2 win on Wednesday and Grayson took Game 3 2-1 before they fell to Buford.
Class 5A has a deep pool of championship contenders and will be extremely interesting to watch once the playoffs arrive. Among these top performers are powerhouses like Loganville, Greenbrier, Blessed Trinity, Wayne County, Cartersville, Starr’s Mill, Decatur, Calhoun and Northside-Columbus. The reclassification that occurred this offseason follows last spring’s cancelled season and so it remains to be seen who will stake their claim on the new Class 5A landscape.
North Oconee was ranked No. 1 in Class 4A before a 12-7 loss to Jefferson last Friday gave Marist the nod for No. 1. The Titans bounced back well from that loss and have posted back-to-back 10-0 wins over East Hall this week. North Oconee (21-4) will visit East Hall again on Friday before closing out the season at home with a three-game series against Madison County next week.
In Class 3A, No. 2 ranked North Hall extended its winning-streak to eight games as Hart County clings to its No. 1 status. Hart County will face Stephens County on Friday in a double-header before meeting No. 4 ranked Oconee County next week for a highly-anticipated three-game series.
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