Bleckley County has state all-sports lead; Windsor plays Monday

When Vidalia slipped past Bleckley County for the GHSA Class 2A boys state track and field title a few weeks ago, more than bragging rights in that sport were at stake.

The Indians picked up points with that finish and taking third in girls track, improving their place in the Georgia Athletic Directors Association all-sports rankings for the classification. But with baseball and golf remaining, Bleckley County has an 89-point lead over Fitzgerald and 154-point lead over Vidalia, with Dodge County in fourth place, 168.6 points back.

Lacrosse just ended and wasn’t in the equation for any of the teams, and baseball isn’t, since none have teams left in either sport.

Golf is another story. Vidalia’s boys and girls qualified for the state golf tournament, which starts Monday, with the Class 2A boys at Waynesboro in Blackshear and girls at Applewood in Keysville. Bleckley County’s girls also qualified, as did Dodge County’s boys.

Vidalia’s girls are favored to win, considering the Indians have won four straight Class 2A titles, while the boys finished seventh last year. Bleckley County’s girls got 38 points for finishing 16th last year and enter the tournament after recording the sixth-best area tournament score.

“I told him to go over there and take care of things,” Rogers said, starting to chuckle. “I said, ‘Just don’t get disqualified.’ ”

If this year is a repeat of last year in golf, Vidalia would get 169 points, and the Royals would take home the all-sports award.

“I’ve done the math,” Rogers said. “Even if Vidalia won both, if we get 50-something points …”

Bleckley County girls are also first in the director’s cup with 475 points, 58 points ahead of third-place Vidalia and 47 points ahead of St. Vincent’s, which finished seventh in girls golf last year and had the second-best qualifying score.

So there’s quite the race on the girls’ side, too.

Dodge County is fourth overall in Class 2A, seventh in boys and 11th in girls. Veterans is ninth overall in Class 5A, eighth in girls sports and 11th in boys.

In Class 4A, West Laurens ranks 10th overall — three spots ahead of Mary Persons — and ninth in boys sports and 14th in girls.

Peach County is 10th overall in Class 3A, ninth in boys and 15th in girls. In Class 1A, Stratford is 10th overall and seventh in girls.

GISA baseball Monday

The weekend’s funky weather disrupted some of the GISA baseball semifinals, so Windsor will try at noon on Monday to advance to the Class 2A championship series.

Windsor handed Terrell its first loss of the season with Thursday’s 4-2 win in the series opener. Landry Rustin had two RBI and got the complete-game win for the Knights, who improved to 20-4.

In the other semifinal, Flint River topped Piedmont 4-3 in the first game of their semifinal series Thursday, but the Cougars evened the series with a 15-5 win. The Cougars and Wildcats will battle at 2 p.m. on Monday in Woodbury.

The first game of the championship series is at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Mercer with the second game at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

John Milledge is already in the Class 3A title round, having dispatched Heritage 14-2 on Thursday and 2-1 on Saturday on the road. John Milledge took advantage of Heritage’s defensive issues and a solid day on the mound from Trevor Evans. Dawson Huff and Jalen Beck had three-run homers in the sixth to seal the first-game win.

On Saturday, Peyton Massey did the damage on offense with a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth for the Trojans, while first baseman Brandon Bellflower came up with a big defensive play to end the game. That came after a lightning delay of nearly an hour-and-a-half.

The Trojans will take on Trinity Christian of Sharpsburg for the championship. Trinity Christian dumped host Deerfield-Windsor 15-3 and 7-6. The first game of the championship series is at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at Mercer with the second game at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.