Gordon Lee steamrolls its way to quarterfinals
Trojans open playoffs with four shutouts, only one hit allowed
It’s the second week of May and the Gordon Lee Trojans find themselves in a very familiar position — the Elite Eight of the state playoffs.
For the fourth straight state tournament, the Navyand-white — champions of Region 6 — are in the state quarterfinals following a 6-0, 11-0 sweep of Region 8 runner-up WashingtonWilkes Wednesday afternoon in Chickamauga.
With the series victory, Gordon Lee (31-2) will have to make the four-plus hour drive to Rochelle for the third round of the Class A Public School playoffs. Because of the GHSA’S universal coin flip, the top-ranked Trojans will face Region 4 champion and fifth-ranked Wilcox County (25-3), who needed
three games to defeat sixthranked Irwin County, 11-5, 0-7 and 15-0, in their second-round series.
The series was slated to begin on Monday of this week
with a doubleheader, while Game 3, if necessary, would be played on Tuesday. Due to newspaper deadlines, results were not available in this week’s edition.
Gordon Lee 6, Washington-wilkes 0
The Trojans extended their streak to three consecutive
no-hitters to begin the 2021 state playoffs in the opener as University of Georgia signee Jake Poindexter dominated the 10th-ranked Tigers to the tune of 15 strikeouts
and just one walk allowed in seven innings.
The senior righty struck out the side in the second,
third, fourth and sixth innings. He also went 2 for 3 at the plate, including a tworun single in the bottom of the third that extended Gordon Lee’s lead to 5-0.
The Trojans jumped on the visitors with three runs in the first inning. Nate Dunfee was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, ran all the way to third after an errant pickoff attempt and scored on a Kade Cowan groundout. Then, following a walk
to Blake Rodgers, Brody Cobb fouled off three straight pitches before mashing his 11th homerun of the year.
Cowan tacked on the final run in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out, solo homer to center to join Poindexter and Cobb with two RBIS in the game. It was the first career prep homer for the sophomore shortstop.
Gordon Lee 11, Washington-wilkes 0
The nightcap finally saw the Trojans’
pitching staff give up a hit, but they only gave up one as they coasted to their fourth consecutive shutout victory in the playoffs.
Gordon Lee’s offense scored in every inning but the third in the five-inning, run-rule victory.
Three runs came in during the top of the first inning, one on Cade Peterson’s Rbi-single and the other two on an RBIsingle by Cody Thomas. Two errors and a bunt single allowed Jacob Neal to score in the second before Cowan plated Cobb with an Rbi-single to make it 5-0.
Cobb and Thomas delivered RBIbase hits in the fourth and, in the fifth,
the Trojans loaded the bases before Cobb launched his 12th homer of the season, a grand slam, to close out the scoring.
Rodgers pitched three innings of nohit ball, striking out two batters and walking one, while Tanner Wilson and Bo Rhudy threw two combined innings of relief. They gave up just one hit and one walk and fanned three.
Cobb finished 3 for 3 with six RBIS to end his night 4 for 6 with eight RBIS. Thomas was 2 for 4 with three RBIS in the nightcap, while Cowan was 2 for 3 with three runs scored.