Seven Runs In The 6th Propels Pope To 11-2 Win Over Riverwood

On Friday, the Pope Greyhounds and the Riverwood Raiders faced off in a decisive game three of the opening round of the Georgia High School Association Class 6A state playoffs. The Hounds would strike first when James Tibbs would go deep for a solo homerun in the bottom of the first inning to put Pope up 1-0. The Hounds’s bats would stay hot in the bottom of the second inning as well as a sacrifice fly ball by Trey Kaiser would drive in a run to give them a 2-0 lead and then Dawson Campbell would connect for a two run double and Pope would go up 4-0.

The Raiders would pick up a couple of runs themselves, one in the top of the third inning and another in the top of the fifth inning and would trail 4-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. With a new pitcher, Drew Holmes, on the mound for Riverwood, the Hounds would open up and explode for seven runs in route to a 11-2 win. Following the game, Pope head coach Jeff Rowland said of their huge sixth inning, “it was good,” adding, “we’re kind of a momentum team and once we get a big hit or two, everybody feeds off that.” As for the Hounds next opponent, they’ll face the Buford Wolves, who moved up from Class 5A, and Coach Rowland says, “it will be a good challenge” and that his guys will need to put in the work and “believing” will be important for them heading into next week’s series.