Woodland edged 1-0 in playoff tie-breaker game

East Paulding loaded the bases on a one-out single, a walk, and a hit batsman in the bottom of the second inning Monday night. The Raiders then pushed across the game’s only run on a slow groundout RBI to third to defeat Woodland 1-0 in a five-inning, tie-breaker game for Region 7-AAAAA’s final state playoff spot.

The game was played at LakePoint in Emerson as a neutral site and was delayed in the second inning by a heavy downpour for just under 20 minutes.

One run was all East Paulding pitcher Jackson Phipps needed Monday night.

The sophomore southpaw allowed only two hits and one walk in a complete game win. Phipps struck out seven, including five over the last two innings.

Koby Stansel started on the mound for Woodland and was tagged with the loss. He allowed one earned run on three hits and a walk. He hit a batter and struck out one. Kenny Jinks entered for the Wildcats after the rain delay with no outs and one base runner on board in the third inning. Jinks picked off the inherited runner and then yielded only one hit and fanned three in a pair of shutout innings.

Tyrell Robinson, Jacob Cook, Seth Grenon, and Phipps had one hit each for the Raiders.

Dylan Webb and Bailey Ward had the only hits for Woodland.

East Paulding improved to 13-16 for the year and advances to the Class 5A playoffs Thursday where the Raiders will start a best-of-three first round series at 2nd-ranked Loganville.

Woodland’s season ends with a 16-15 mark.

“Congrats to East Paulding,” said Woodland head coach Colby Coursey via Twitter Monday night after the game. “(It was a) tough loss to end the season but I couldn’t be more proud of my guys and the way they fought all season! Thank you Wildcat Nation, parents, administration, staff, coaches and most importantly my players! We will continue to work and get better!”