VALDOSTA —
The Lowndes Vikings begin the 2012 Class AAAAA state baseball playoffs today on their home field.
The Vikings will host East Coweta in a best-of-three series. The first two games will be played today, beginning at 5 p.m. at Noel George Field. The if-necessary third game would be played on Saturday at noon. Admission will be $7 for the doubleheader, the price set by the GHSA.
“It’ll be interesting tomorrow,” Lowndes head coach Danny Redshaw said. “I hope the fans come out in droves. We’re looking forward to good competition from East Coweta. It should be a very good opening round series.”
East Coweta enters the game with a 14-11 record. The Indians went 10-4 in Region 2-AAAAA games, and wound up being their region’s third seed.
“They’ve got a good ball team,” Redshaw said. “Franklin DeLoach is their coach. They’re always good. He does a good job up there. They finished third in that region; that’s a pretty good region up there, baseball-wise.
“I think it’s just a good, solid team one through nine. I don’t think they have any superstars, but they play good baseball.”
Lowndes went 15-11 this season, and finished second in Region 1-AAAAA with an 8-4 record. The Vikings enter the playoffs having won five of their last six games.
“We’ve been playing pretty good baseball the last four weeks,” Redshaw said.
Right-hander Dylan Roberts will likely start game 1 on the mound for the Vikings. On Thursday, Redshaw said he hadn’t decided who would start game 2; it could be Mason Brooks, Dalton Register or Logan Hutchinson.
“We knew coming into the year we were going to have some depth on the mound, and it’s helped us throughout the year,” Redshaw said. “When you go into the playoffs, in a three-game series, you’re going to need four or five pitchers. It’s good to have a little bit of depth.”
Everyone on Lowndes’ roster is healthy enough to play, including cleanup hitter Luke Miller, who was briefly out with a finger injury.
What does Lowndes’ coach feel it will take to win this series?
“If we pitch it well, don’t give any free passes and keep playing good defense (we’ve got a chance),” Redshaw said. “I’ve been real happy with our hitting the last 8-10 ball games. That’s probably been the difference for us. We’ve really started playing well the last 3-4 weeks. We have swung the bats well.
“We’ve just got to take advantage when we get baserunners on, and do the little things right, and if we’re fortunate, we’ll come out on the good end.”
Redshaw is glad the Vikings have their first-round series at Noel George Field.
“It’s good to be at home,” he said. “We had to make the trip up there last year to Newnan the second round. We’re certainly excited to be at home in front of our fans.”
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Region 1-AA rivals Berrien and Cook will also begin the playoffs today.
Berrien, the Region 1-AA champion, will host Brantley County (14-10) in the first round. Game 1 of their doubleheader will begin at 2:30 p.m., with game 2 to follow afterwards. The if-necessary game 3 would be played at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The Rebels went 22-4 in the regular season, and are currently ranked No. 4 in Class AA.
Cook, which went 16-9 this season and finished second in the region, will host Jeff Davis (18-8) today at 4 p.m., with game 2 to follow afterwards.
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Nick Higginbotham (24) and the Lowndes Vikings host East Coweta in the first round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs today. southernphotos.smugmug.com
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Vikings open playoffs today against East Coweta
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