Teams fighting for position in regions

Published 12:00 am Monday, April 11, 2016

Regular season countdown growing short

By Kevin Eckleberry

keckleberry@civitasmedia.com

Troup’s Ryan Bliss is greeted after hitting a home run against Sandy Creek last week. Bliss and the Tigers will play Fayette County three times this week. Kevin Eckleberry | Daily News

http://lagrangenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2016/04/web1_troup1.jpgTroup’s Ryan Bliss is greeted after hitting a home run against Sandy Creek last week. Bliss and the Tigers will play Fayette County three times this week. Kevin Eckleberry | Daily News

The LaGrange Grangers celebrate a win over Shaw last week. LaGrange, which went 3-0 last week, will visit Northside today. Kevin Eckleberry | Daily News

http://lagrangenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/37/2016/04/web1_LHS1-1.jpgThe LaGrange Grangers celebrate a win over Shaw last week. LaGrange, which went 3-0 last week, will visit Northside today. Kevin Eckleberry | Daily News

LAGRANGE – It’s another big week for the LaGrange Grangers as they look to chase down a state-playoff spot.

The Grangers have been one of the hottest teams in Region 1-AAAAA of late, and they’ll look to keep it going this week with three key games.

First up will be today’s road game against the Northside Patriots, with first pitch set for 5:30 p.m.

The game was originally going to be played on Tuesday, but since there was a good chance of rain that day, the decision was made to move the game to today.

LaGrange ends the week with two games against Hardaway.

Thursday’s game will be in Columbus, and LaGrange will be the host team on Friday.

The Grangers opened region play by losing four of their first five games, but they’ve only lost once since then, and they improved to 7-5 in the region with their three wins last week.

In today’s game, LaGrange will look to turn the tables on Northside.

They played on back-to-back days in March, and it was Northside winning 13-7 and 5-3.

Since the second loss to Northside, LaGrange is 6-1 in the region, and it beat Columbus once and Shaw twice last week.

With six region games remaining, the Grangers still have a chance to finish first, but they’re also only one game ahead of Hardaway for fourth place.

Northside leads the region with an 11-3 record, and it is followed by Columbus (10-3), Harris County (8-5), LaGrange (7-5), Hardaway (6-6), Shaw (3-11) and Carver (0-12).

If the Grangers win all three games this week, they could have a playoff spot wrapped up before the final week of the regular season.

Next week, LaGrange plays Carver once, and Harris County twice.

Also this week, the Troup Tigers will continue pursuit of the Region 5-AAAA championship.

Troup beat Sandy Creek three times last week to improve to 8-1 in the region, and it has a two-game cushion over Whitewater (6-3), which won the region title a year ago.

Woodward Academy (5-4) and Carrollton (5-4) are tied for second, and Fayette County (2-7) and Sandy Creek (1-8) bring up the rear.

Troup has three games with Fayette County this week.

Troup will be the host team on Thursday, and Fayette County will be at home for the games on Tuesday and Friday.

If Troup wins all three games this week, it will head into the final week of the regular season only needing to win one of three games against Whitewater to clinch the region championship.

A year ago, Whitewater beat Troup in the final game of the regular season to win the region.

Callaway will complete its Region 5-AAA schedule this week with three games against Cedartown, which has already sewn up the region title.

Callaway will host Tuesday’s game, and Cedartown will be at home for a doubleheader on Friday.

Callaway will be in the playoffs, and it can still finish anywhere from second to fourth.

THIS WEEK’S GAMES

TODAY

LaGrange at Northside, 5:30 p.m.

TUESDAY

Cedartown at Callaway, 5:30 p.m.

Troup at Fayette County, 5:30 p.m.

LaGrange Academy at Brandon Hall, 2 p.m.

THURSDAY

Fayette County at Troup, 5:30 p.m.

LaGrange at Hardaway, 4:30 p.m.

Heritage at LaGrange Academy, 5 p.m.

FRIDAY

Hardaway at LaGrange, 5:30 p.m.

Troup at Fayette County, 5:30 p.m.

Callaway at Cedartown, 4:30 p.m.

Flint River at LaGrange Academy, 5 p.m.

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports