Parkview resumes its pursuit of a third straight state championship in baseball on Monday when the state playoffs start the semifinal round.
Here is a closer look at each classification as high school sports enters the final week in the 2012-13 academic year. Each playoff round is a best-of-three series starting with a double-header.
AAAAAA – Parkview, led by Josh Hart (.446) and Jarrett Hood (.389, 11 HR), is trying to become the first school to win three straight titles in the highest class since Evans (1988-1990). Parkview plays Milton, the champion of strong Region 5, which also delivered Walton and Roswell to the semis. This will be the 10th straight season that the champ in the highest class has come from Cobb, North Fulton or Gwinnett.
AAAAA - Starr's Mill and Whitewater give Fayette County two chances to win a state title. No Fayette County school has won a state title in baseball since Fayette County High in 1964. Starr's Mill, the Region 4 winner, knocked out 2012 state champion Loganville in a quarterfinal sweep but now must travel to Region 7 champ Pope, a state champ in 2007. Whitewater plays Greenbrier, a No. 4 seed with a history of five state championships, most recently in 2007.
AAAA – Marist, a winner of 12 state baseball titles, finds itself in the semifinals with three other schools that have not won state baseball state titles in the past 50 years. But Marist must travel to Region 1 champion Crisp County, which has won only one state title in any sport in its history – baseball in 1961. Redan and Troup, the other semifinal teams, have swept all three of their playoff series.
AAA – With five state titles won since 2001, Cartersville is the heavyweight here, but Blessed Trinity has won 19 straight games against Georgia opponents. Cartersville plays St. Pius, which was third in Blessed Trinity's Region 6. Blessed Trinity travels to Region 7 champion North Hall (30-3), which has homefield advantage the rest of the way.
AA – Two Buckhead rivals from Region 6 must go on the road, Lovett to Benedictine in Savannah and Westminster to Pepperell in Rome. Westminster has won every Class AA championship possible this spring with sweeps of boys and girls titles in track and field, soccer and tennis. Only golf and baseball remain. (Westminster also won boys lacrosse, which is played in a combined AAAA-A classification.)
A – Gordon Lee will play Charlton County on Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the Class A public final. The teams split two games on Saturday. The Class A private champion is Landmark Christian, which swept a two-game series with Mount Paran Christian on Saturday.
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