Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy waited seven years to celebrate another baseball championship. On Saturday evening, they had to wait about a minute longer than anticipated.
Leading Mt. Paran Christian 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh of Game 2 with the bases empty and two outs, after already defeating the Eagles in Game 1 (5-1), the Chargers thought they had recorded the final out of the series when freshman Cole Ganopulos got fellow ninth grader Taylor Trammell to ground out to first on full count. Eagle’s Landing Christian players charged their home field and formed a dog pile on Ganopulos, as did several enthusiastic students from the bleachers. But the ball had hit Trammell’s foot and was ruled a foul ball by the home-plate umpire.
Not to worry. After the fans went back to the stands and all the players collected their gloves and hats, Ganopulos zipped a fastball on the outer edge of the plate for a called third strike — and a Class A-Private state title for Eagle’s Landing Christian. It was the second championship for Eagle’s Landing Christian this school year, as the Chargers won the football championship last December.
Eagle’s Landing Christian entered the playoffs as the top seeded team in the 16-team tournament. But they had entered the 2007 playoffs ranked No. 1 as well, after winning the championship in 2006. They were swept by Calvary Day of Savannah, the team they had defeated in the title series the year before.
“That team had a bad day, that’s all,” said Eagle’s Landing Christian coach Doug Campbell, who was in his second year as head coach in 2007. “This team didn’t have any bad days. They’ve been extremely confident all year in their ability to hit the baseball and not feel that any pitcher could shut them down.”
Indeed, the Chargers showed their offensive prowess and resiliency in both games, as they scored seven of their nine runs with two outs. Eagle’s Landing Christian got two-out hits and RBIs from seniors D.J. Curl and Jacob Hayward, as well as junior Andrew Gomez.
“We’ve done that all year,” Campbell said. “Gomez has been a machine, and Curl has done it all throughout the playoffs, not only with two outs but with two strikes.”
Class A-Public
Charlton County 11-3, Gordon Lee 4-10: The teams split the first two games of the Class A-Public championship series, played at Charlton County. L.J. Talley had two doubles and an RBI to help the Indians win the first game. Jake Rogers drove in a run with a double for the Trojans in the second. Game 3 is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Monday.
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