Phoenix are back in Region 6-3A games
The way things are going for the Sonoraville High School baseball team, they look to be destined for at least 10 or 11 victories in Region 6-3A.
And that should be enough for the Phoenix to reach the postseason.
But Sonoraville head coach Deron Walraven says the team is shooting for higher heights than just getting into the playoffs.
“Yeah, I definitely think 10 or 11 games will get you in (the playoffs), but we have higher expectations than that,” the coach said. “We obviously want to make the playoffs and then go as far as we can, but we have higher aspirations than just making it (to the playoffs).”
In other words, they’d like to be in contention for the Region championship or even the second seed and an opening-round home playoff game and as they ventured back into the league schedule Friday at Murray County (details of that game were not available at press time), they were not that far from the top of the league standings.
The Phoenix continued their trend of winning two-out-of-every-three league games they played last week, doing it again before they began this week with a thrilling non-region home win Monday night over Pickens County in the first of their two-game set that ended Wednesday night.
For the first time in a while, it appears the Region may have a new champion with Ringgold, which has won it in undefeated-style the past five years, going into this weekend sitting in a second place tie with Lakeview Fort-Oglethorpe and both schools are a full two games behind front-runner Rockmart, which was 12-1 to start Friday’s full slate of games. (Details of those games were not available at press time).
That one league loss that Rockmart suffered was to Sonoraville and the Phoenix also split games with Ringgold and LFO and all of that has them 8-4 in the Region and alone in fourth place behind those other three schools.
Coahulla Creek is the fifth place team at 7-4 and the Colts, which play LFO once this week and once next week and then close with Sonoraville, are nipping at the Phoenix’s heels in the standings with those two teams to meet next week in the last regular season series of the spring.
“We don’t have that many games left,” Walraven said last week. “After the Pickens County games, we only have four games remaining in the Region so we want to finish strong. We need to finish strong, but we are playing two good teams — Murray County and Coahulla — and we need to come
out and play our best. It’s that time of the year where you want to be at your best and we need to be, if we’re going to reach our goals.”
The Firebirds began last week by defeating Adairsville, 4-2, in Tiger Town but couldn’t get the sweep on Friday night, when they fell to the team from Bartow County, 8-6, at The Furnace.
Then on Saturday, they traveled to Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe to play a makeup game and they handled the Warriors, 8-2, to improve to 8-4 in the Region and remain right in the mix heading into the season’s final days.
They followed that up on Monday by going out of the 6-3A league for a 5-4 win over Pickens County at home, which was the 15th win of the almostfinished season.
Rockmart, which defeated North Murray twice earlier this week, had a two-game lead in the loss column in the Region over both Ringgold and LFO, heading into this weekend. The Yellowjackets have just two league games left on the slate this week and they are both against Adairsville with a road game Thursday and a home
game versus the Tigers on Friday.
Rockmart, along with Coahulla Creek, is presently the hottest team in the league, with the Jackets having won six consecutive games since they lost to the Phoenix. Two of those victories were one-run nail-biters a couple of weeks ago over Ringgold, cementing their status as the new Kings of the 6-3A hill.
The Yellowjackets have also been hammering the baseball lately, scoring 23 runs in taking two games over LaFayette and 12 more in a 12-0 mercy rule win over North Murray Tuesday evening.
Rockmart, which missed the playoffs last year, stands an impressive 17-5 overall on the year.
So at this point, all the Phoenix can do is win ballgames and hope they get a little help. But they still definitely control their own destiny and by winning these final Region games or at least three of them, should definitely be standing when the postseason begins the first week of May.
The Phoenix went into this weekend with a 16-7 record overall.