Cougars two wins from a title

Published 12:05 am Tuesday, May 7, 2019

By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

And then there were two.

When the Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association state playoffs began, there were eight teams hopeful of bringing home the championship trophy.

That number has been whittled down to two, and it’ll be Lafayette Christian School and Peachtree Academy meeting for the state championship on Friday in a best-of-three series.

They’ll play a doubleheader on Friday, and if needed, a third and deciding game will be played on Saturday.

The games are scheduled to be played at LaGrange College.

Lafayette Christian earned its championship shot by beating Westminster Christian Academy on Friday after opening the playoffs with a victory over Horizon Christian Academy.

Neither one of the Horizon games were competitive, with Lafayette Christian sweeping the series by scores of 12-4 and 13-3.

It was the same story in the opening game of the Westminster series, with Lafayette Christian easing to a 13-3 victory.

There was plenty of suspense in the second game against Westminster, though.

It was a tie game when the Cougars grabbed the lead with four runs in the top of the seventh inning, and Jacob Karvelas pitched a perfect bottom of the inning to finish off the 12-8 victory and send the team into the championship series.

Peachtree Academy had a first-round bye, and it beat Cherokee Christian in the semifinals.

This will be the first meeting of the season between Lafayette Christian and Peachtree Academy.

Lafayette Christian and Westminster ended up playing at two different locations on Friday.

They started at LaGrange College, and the game was postponed when a heavy storm moved through.

When the decision was reached that they wouldn’t be able to get the LaGrange College field ready, the teams headed to Troup High to finish the series.

After taking care of business in game one, Lafayette Christian got the hard-earned win in game two.

With the game deadlocked in the seventh inning, Levi Spears walked with the bases loaded to give the Cougars the lead.

After Jacob Karvelas and Tanner Jackson came through with back-to-back RBI singles, Nathan Karvelas walked with the bases full to cap the scoring.

Jacob Karvelas did his job from the leadoff position with three hits and an RBI, and he scored three runs.

Jackson and Cason Firth each had two hits and an RBI, and Ben Ogle and Devin Lindsey had two hits apiece.

Nathan Karvelas walked twice and had an RBI, and Levi Spears drove in a run.

Nathan Karvelas started and pitched four innings, and only one of the five runs he allowed was earned.

Spears worked one inning, and Jacob Karvelas threw the final two innings.

Westminster struck first with two runs in the top of the first inning, but Lafayette Christian scored 18 runs over the next four innings to win by blowout.

The Cougars finished with 16 hits, and nine different players had at least one hit.

Cason Firth had three of those hits, including a triple, and he had three RBIs and three runs scored.

Jacob Karvelas had three hits and two RBIs, Brock Tumlin had two hits and four RBIs, and Landon Bush had two hits with three RBIs.

Levi Spears had one hit and three RBIs, Adam Barnett had a hit, two walks and an RBI, Nathan Karvelas had a hit and two walks, and Devin Lindsey had one hit.

Jacob Karvelas started and pitched three innings, and Levi Spears worked the fourth and final inning.

The game ended early because of the run rule.

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