Redan pitchers Holloway and Evans dominate at state playoffs opening

Story and photos by Mark Brock, DCSD Athletics Specialist

DEKALB COUNTY, GA—AJ Holloway and Matthew Evans combined for 14 innings on the mound and allowed just two runs in a pair of complete game wins as the Redan Raiders swept the Fellowship Christian Paladians 9-0 and 5-2 in the first round of the Class 2A baseball state playoffs at Redan on Thursday afternoon.

Holloway pitched a six-hit, complete game shutout in the 9-0 win to open the series.

The game went scoreless until  the bottom of the third when the Raiders (23-4) struck for three runs after three consecutive walks to load the bases. Matthew Evans lofted a sacrifice fly to score Eris Smith to make it 1-0. Tyrell Wyatt followed with an RBI single to score Colin Brightwell. Derek Peoples came around to score as Wyatt got caught in a run down to give the Raiders the 3-0 lead.

Redan continued to hold the 3-0 lead until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Raiders took advantage of two errors to score five runs. Wyatt had an infield single to drive in one run, Xavier Zachery hit a sacrifice fly and Joshua Westbrook singled in another run as the lead ballooned to 8-0.

Brightwell added an RBI single in the sixth to make it 9-0.

A one-out single by Fellowship Christian’s Waggoner turned into an out as he tried to stretch it into a double. Redan left fielder Joshua Westbrook threw him out at second.

Fellowship got runners on first and second with two two-out singles before Holloway induced a groundout to end the game.

Wyatt finished the game 3-3 with three RBI and Westbrook was 2-3 with an RBI.

Game 2

Redan 5, Fellowship 2

The Raiders scored two first inning runs and Matthew Evans went seven innings with seven strikeouts to help Redan to a 5-2 victory to complete the first round series win.

Colin Brightwell doubled down the right field line and moved to third as the right fielder misplayed the ball to start the game. Derek Peoples hit an infield single to deep shortstop to plate Brightwell for the lead. Xavier Zachery hit a two-out single to right to drive Peoples across the plate to make it 2-0.

Brightwell made it a 3-0 margin with an RBI triple in the second. In the meantime, Evans was pitching three hitless innings and had allowed just one base runner (who was caught stealing) over the first three innings.

A two-out error and a single by Jack Oetinger pulled the Paladians (13-16) to within 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Evans worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth with a pair of strikeouts in the second to end the inning to preserve the 3-2 lead. The Raiders then put two runs on the board in the top of the sixth on a two-out,  two-run single by AJ Holloway to up the advantage to 5-2.

Two runners reached against Evans in both the bottom of the sixth and bottom of the seventh but worked out of both with inning ending groundouts.

Brightwell finished the game 3-4 with two doubles, a triple and an RBI to lead the hitting and Xavier Zachery was 2-3 with an RBI and run scored.

Class 4A

Cedartown 7, 7, Druid Hills 4, 0

The Cedartown Bulldogs swept a doubleheader from the Druid Hills Red Devils by scores of 7-4 and 7-0 to knock Druid Hills out of the Class 4A state playoffs at Cedartown on Thursday.

Druid Hills wrapped up its season with a final record of 16-13.

Heritage-Catoosa 4, 8, SW DeKalb 3, 1

The Southwest DeKalb Panthers entered the Class 4A state playoffs as the No. 4 seed from Region 6-4A but gave the No. 1 seeded Heritage-Catoosa a battle before losing the series 0-2.

The Panthers (10-14) had a 3-2 lead in the 12^th inning only to give up two runs to Heritage (23-7) in the bottom of the inning to fall 4-3.

Heritage ran out to  7-0 lead in the fifth inning on the way to a series clinching 8-1 win in the night cap.

CLASS 6A

Tift County 4, 10, Dunwoody 3, 3

Tift County edged Dunwoody 4-3 in the opening game of their Class 6A playoff series at Tift on Thursday. The win gave Tift a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

Tift County closed out the series with a 10-3 win in the nightcap to end Dunwoody’s season at 19-13.

DCSD BASEBALL STATE PLAYOFFS RESULTS

Thursday, 4/25

CLASS 6A

Tift Co. (24-6) 4, Dunwoody (19-12) 3

Tift Co. (25-6) 10, Dunwoody (19-13) 3

Tift Co. wins series 2-0

CLASS 4A

Cedartown (14-16) 7, Druid Hills (16-12) 4

Cedartown (15-16) 7, Druid Hills (16-13) 0

Cedartown wins the series 2-0

Heritage-Catoosa (22-7) 4, SW DeKalb (10-13) 3 (12 Innings)

Heritage-Catoosa (23-7) 4, SW DeKalb (10-14)

Heritage-Catoosa wins series 2-0

CLASS 2A

Redan (23-4) 9, Fellowship Christian (13-16) 0

Redan (23-4) 5, Fellowship Christian (13-16) 2

Redan wins series 2-0