Marist got outstanding efforts from its two ace pitchers and swept Greenbrier in the Class AAAA quarterfinals Tuesday at Jerry Queen Field.
The War Eagles (29-3) won the first game 6-2 behind senior pitcher Blake Stevens, then closed the series with a 10-1 victory in the nightcap, as Brandon Leibrandt struck out 10 and pitched a complete game.
Marist will host Loganville in the best-of-three semifinals that begin Monday.
Marist slugged four home runs in the second game, as Kevin Gale, Anthony Sherlag, Stevens and Daniel Spingola all went deep.
Facing one of their fiercest traditional rivals, Marist knew it would be crucial to win the first game. So they turned things over to Stevens, and he delivered.
Stevens baffled the Greenbrier (21-10) bats for six innings.
“He threw great,” said senior David Bourbonnais, who pitched a perfect seventh inning in relief to sew up the victory. “It’s a good feeling when you have skilled pitchers out there.”
Stevens allowed only four hits, struck out nine and walked two. He also drove in a run with a single in the second.
Marist wasted no time getting on the board, striking for a pair of runs in the first on a double by Spingola and a single by Gale.
After Greenbrier got a run back on Jordan Hunt’s RBI double in the second, Marist bounced back when Gabriel Durot doubled and scored on a single by Stevens.
Marist tacked on another run in the third on a safety squeeze by Bourbonnais, which scored Sherlag, and added two more in the fifth on Durot’s two-out triple that went over the head of center fielder Wesley Turner.
Greenbrier trimmed another run off the lead in the sixth inning on a sharp single to left by Will Price, but Stevens got out of the inning thanks to a diving defensive play by Brett Dolan, and by striking out Hunt.
This is the seventh time in 13 years that the two clubs have met in the playoffs, with Marist winning three series. The previous two times the War Eagles went on to win the state championship.
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