From staff reports

The Bowdon High School baseball team took care of business Friday and was rewarded not only with a day off Saturday, but a home playoff series to open the first round of the Class A state playoffs next week.

The Red Devils, who were one game ahead of Gordon Lee for second place in Region 6-A entering Friday’s road contest, defeated the Trojans, 8-4, to secure the No. 2 seed and home playoff date for Friday’s doubleheader, where they will host No. 3 Athens Christian out of Region 8-A.

The time of Friday’s doubleheader is yet to be determined.

With the win on Friday, Saturday’s scheduled home game between Bowdon and Gordon Lee was nullified, as there was really nothing to play for and it saved the Trojans a long bus drive for a meaningless game, as far as postseason seedings go.

Bowdon coach Mark Huggins said he was proud of his team’s focus and effort Friday at Gordon Lee, a tough place to come out with a ‘W.’

“Anytime you have an opportunity to have a home playoff series, you know, you’ve put yourself in good position to at least advance past the first round, so I’m proud of the way our guys took care of business (Friday) and (Saturday’s) game was kind of able to be a wash as a result of that,” Huggins said. “So we didn’t have to turn around and play Gordon Lee again.”

In Friday’s contest, Robby Harvell got things started for the Red Devils (20-3, 8-1 Region 6-A) in the top of the first with a three-run homer in a game Bowdon would never trail.

Gordon Lee would tie the game up at 3-3 before the Red Devils took the lead back for good in the top of the fifth.

Derrick Norton started the rally with a leadoff single, then scored on an RBI triple by Trevor Pollard. After a walk to Jacob Parson, Will Young squeezed home Pollard to make it a 5-3 contest.

In the sixth, the Red Devils tacked on two more runs on an RBI single from Norton and an RBI sacrifice fly from Pollard.

Seth Key capped off the scoring for the day with an RBI single in the seventh.

Young got the start for Bowdon, working 3.2 innings and allowing three earned runs for the no decision. Jason Jennings tossed 3.1 innings of relief to earn the win, allowing just two hits and no earned runs, while fanning four.

Offensively, Young (2-for-2, 2 runs, RBI), Norton (2-for-2, run, RBI) and Harvell (1-for-3, HR, 3 RBI) led the way.

Bowdon, which finished second to Bremen this year in the region because the Blue Devils won the tie-breaker, seemed to be poised to make a strong postseason run this year after being knocked out in the first round last season to Georgia Military College as a No. 3 seed.

Both Bowdon and Bremen (18-2, 9-1 Region 6-A) will host their first-round playoff series’ beginning Friday.

The Red Devils will host the Eagles (14-7, 12-6 Region 8-A), who have lost four of their last six entering the postseason.

Bremen, meanwhile, will play host to Athens Academy (14-9, 11-7 Region 8-A), the No. 4 seed.

Not to look too far ahead, but an intriguing second-round matchup would pit the Red Devils up against Landmark Christian, the No. 1 seed out of Region 5-A.

The War Eagles split with Bremen this season and are 18-6 overall on the year.

“Not counting our eggs before they hatch, by any means, we’ve got to take care of the first round, but after that I think it would be a run-in with Landmark (Christian) potentially if they win their first-round series,” Huggins said. “I know Bremen split with them earlier this year and we split with Bremen, so if you go by that, it would definitely be a very, very difficult and tough matchup. But that’s, of course, if we’re fortunate enough to advance.”