Analysis: Logistics making GHSA baseball finals plan anything but simple - or overly agreeable

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The plan was for the GHSA to announce last week what classes would play at which of the five facilities set up for the baseball championships.

          That time came and went, with semifinals starting Tuesday and the finals starting next Monday.

          The sites are Luther Williams Field, SunTrust Park, State Mutual Stadium in Rome, Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, and Grayson Stadium in Savannah.

          Class 7A will play at SunTrust.

          The GHSA reportedly will release the information around lunchtime Monday.

          Waiting until Tuesday to see what teams might make things easier by winning in two games and make for better logistics – or making a change or two – was an option, since the venues don’t really need to know who’s playing there.

          There are two classifications with Central Georgia teams involved, Bleckley County in AA and Tattnall in A-Private.

          The semifinal pairings:

          7A – Parkview at North Gwinnett, Grayson at Hillgrove;

          6A – Pope at Harrison, Effingham County at Heritage-Conyers;

          5A – Locust Grove at Loganville, Ola at Decatur;

          4A – Northside-Columbus at North Oconee, Denmark at Blessed Trinity;

          3A – North Hall at Pace Academy, Hart County at Pike County;

          2A – Jeff Davis at Bleckley County, Callaway at Rockmart;

          A-Public – Irwin County at Schley County, Bowdon at Gordon Lee;

          A-Private – Hebron Christian at Tattnall, Wesleyan at Savannah Christian.

          The fairly close semifinalists to Macon are Ola, Locust Grove, Northside-Columbus, Jeff Davis, Pike County, Callaway, and Schley County. Irwin County.

          There are no potentially convenient matchups that could be played in Savannah. The closest team to Grayson Stadium after Savannah Christian (A-Private) is Effingham County (6A). Jeff Davis is about two hours, Tattnall is about two and a half hours, and then Irwin County in Ocilla, Locust Grove, and Ola at around three hours and change each.

          The majority of the semifinalists are in metro Atlanta (SunTrust and Coolray), or more convenient to Rome, so there could be some eyebrow-raising pairings.

          One scenario to consider is top-seed Tattnall playing somewhere other than Luther Williams Field based on the big picture, like if Locust Grove and Ola win. Forcing two neighbors to bypass Macon to go to Savannah would likely cause an uproar – they’re both about an hour from Macon - as would a local team playing somewhere else.

          One safe bet for Luther Williams is Class AA. Jeff Davis is a little closer to Macon than it is Savannah, and the optimum pairing for Macon in AA would be Bleckley County and Callaway (less than two hours). Rockmart is west of Atlanta, so it would have a hefty drive to Savannah.

          So a Tattnall-Savannah Christian series in Savannah could develop.

          Last year’s finals were scheduled for Rome (4A and 6A), Athens (5A and 7A), Savannah (AA and A-Public), and Macon (3A and A-Private). Rain disrupted things throughout, and 7A ended up at Parkview. The logistics last year were actually worse than this year’s.