Baseball Cougars Head to State

The Piedmont Academy baseball team will enter the GISA Class AA state playoffs as the No. 2 seed from Region 1-AA.

This year’s state tournament will begin next Tuesday. Piedmont will host at least one first-round game on that day although the opponent and game time had not been determined by press time. The state tournament features a best-of-three format.

The Diamond Cougars enter the postseason with a 15-8 overall record and a 9-3 region mark.

Piedmont wrapped up the regular season Tuesday with a 10-8 win against a scrappy Monroe Academy team in a game that lasted more than three hours.

“It was a game we had to win to make sure we didn’t finish tied for second,” Diamond Cougar coach Danny Camp said after the contest. “We were playing a pesky team on the road and the playing conditions were not very good. It was a wild one where they had nothing to lose and we had everything to lose.”

Cris Jackson earned the win pitching in relief. While Jackson had pitched the previous day, Camp had to call upon his standout to make sure the game did not get away.

Offensively, Taylor Jackson was 3-for-4 with Randy Reagin going 2-for-3 with three RBI. Clint Fields was 2-for-2 while Joey Schroeder was 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Andrew Stevenson also came through Tuesday with a triple and a double which drove in two runs.
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“I am proud of this team for finishing second in the region,” Camp said. “It was quite an accomplishment.”

Prior to Tuesday’s win in the regular season finale, Piedmont was upset Monday by Briarwood 5-4. Trailing 5-0 going into the seventh inning, the Cougars cut the lead to 5-4 and had a runner on third base with two outs before the host Buccaneers made a strong defensive play in the outfield to hold on.

Piedmont left 15 base runners stranded in the game. Even in the first inning, the Cougars loaded the bases with no outs but could not push a run across.

Camp’s team did defeat rival Gatewood 11-5 in a region game last Wednesday. Zack Kinney earned the win to improve to 4-0. Kinney recorded four strikeouts and allowed three earned runs. Brent Brown closed the game out.

Reagin had a three-run homer in the victory which gave his team a 6-1 lead. Schroeder continued his torrid pace with a double, homerun and three RBIs. Camp said Schroeder is a “heck of an athlete” who has caught fire this spring.

Piedmont fans are asked to contact the school for the exact game time of next Tuesday’s state contest.