Vikings ready for quarterfinals, Redan

Published 9:39 pm Monday, December 5, 2005

VALDOSTA — The Lowndes Vikings have advanced their record back to the .500 mark with a 15-15 record.

Now they hope to advance to the AAAAA semifinals with a win in their state quarterfinal series with Redan that begins today at Noel George Field.

Game 1 is slated for a 5 p.m. start, with the second game following. Thursday’s “if-necessary” game is set for 1 p.m. The first two games will be broadcast on AM 1450 WVLD with the third game being on FM 105.9 WVGA.

The winner of this series will move on to the semifinals to face the winner of the Pope- East Coweta series.

“At this point it’s just a matter of who plays their best ball on that given day,” Lowndes head coach Danny Redshaw said. “The state tournament is wide open right now. Any one of the eight teams can win it. I’m sure Redan is going to be a lot of people’s favorite because of their pitching, but no one has picked us all year.”

The Vikings are glad to be at home after two playoff series on the road.

“We like the friendly confines of Noel George Field. We’re glad to still be playing,” Redshaw said. “We’ve got some great fans, they really support us. Any time you play at home with the bunch we have in the stands it’s an advantage.”

The Raiders, the Region 7-AAAAA co-champions come out of the north Georgia quadrant that was expected to put forth two-time defending state champion Parkview, who was upset in the first round by McEachern. Redan eliminated McEachern in the second round to set up today’s match up.

“They’re a very athletic team. They’ve got the best pitcher in the state with the (Chris) Nelson kid, hands down,” Redshaw said. “They swing the bats well, play good defense and are well-coached. It’s going to be quite a challenge for us, no doubt.”

The Vikings are on a roll as of late, sweeping Newnan in last week’s second round and getting by Henry County with a 2-1 series win in the first round of play.

Leading the Vikings on the mound are Jim Letourneau, Bowen Corbett, Clay Hamm and Will Thompson.

In five playoff pitching appearances, Thompson has given up no runs on two hits in 7.1 innings. Letourneau is 1-1 with 3.28 ERA, while Corbett and Hamm are each 1-0 with an ERA of 2.80.

“We don’t have any superstars. We just go out and play,” Redshaw said. “Once our players bought into that team concept we’ve been a much better squad.”

The surging Vikings will look to continue riding that solid pitching, sound defense and clutch hitting that has been the mainstay, but it won’t be easy against the Raiders, who’s squad includes eight seniors.

Despite the senior-laden crop, Nelson, a junior, is the workhorse of Redan’s squad, leading the team on both the mound and the plate.

Redshaw expects Nelson to be drafted in the first round of next year’s draft.

“He throws it in the low 90’s and has great command of his curve ball,” Redshaw said. “He’s the best there is in the state. I don’t think there is any doubt about that.”

Also leading Redan is third baseman David Camp and Amiel Traynum at catcher.

“They’ve got a couple of guys down toward the bottom of the order who can swing the bat well,” Redshaw said. “It’s not like you can get through two or three guys and be on easy street.”

Brandon Ponder leads the Vikings at the plate with a .386 batting average while Letourneau and Yancey Hartman are tied for the team home run lead with five apiece.

Hartman also holds the team RBI lead with 22.

“I’m not quite as concerned about the other dugout as we are about ours. If we just show up, play defense, and do our job and play together as a team we’ll be fine,” Redshaw said.