Staff Photos: Brandon Evans
Loganville's Casey Shiver dives into second base as Salem's Dustin Dunlop fields the throw. 

Razor-thin decision
Two one-run losses end Salem's playoff run

Jeff Gillespie
RC Sports Editor

LOGANVILLE - After two games and 14 innings, all that separated Salem from a trip to the Class AAAA championship baseball series was two runs.

The Seminoles (28-8) saw their historic season come to an end on Memorial Day, dropping a pair of one-run decisions to Loganville. The Red Devils took Game 1 6-5 and then held on to claim Game 2 9-8, sending a Region 8-AAAA squad to the championship series for the second year in a row.

"There were a lot of ifs and ands in both games, but I'm just proud of my team. They battled to the very end and that's all I ever wanted," Salem coach Chris Davis said. "It's tough (to lose), but one day they are going to realize how special this season has been. I can't say enough about them."

In Game 1, the Seminoles came out swinging. Dustin Dunlop greeted Loganville starting pitcher Ben Marshall with a leadoff home run to start the game.

Josh Bailey followed with a single and eventually scored on Taylor Lamb's perfect squeeze bunt, giving the Seminoles a

2-0 lead.

But in what would become a theme throughout both games, Loganville quickly tied the game in the bottom of the first. Clay Garner doubled in a run and scored on a Luke Baker groundout.

The Seminoles jumped back in front 3-2 in the top of third when Brandon Crumbley's double off the wall knocked in Jake Dyer.

However, Loganville countered with three runs in the bottom of the third against Salem's starting pitcher Dyer. Garner had a two-run double and scored again on a Baker grounder, giving Loganville a 5-3 advantage.

Salem's Cameron Gibson cut the deficit to one with a solo homer in the top of the fourth.

The Red Devils added a key insurance run in the bottom fifth. Loganville's Casey Shiver reached on an error and Garner followed with another RBI double, his third of the game and his fourth RBI.

In the top of the seventh, Salem's Gibson blasted another homer, this time a leadoff shot off Loganville's Shiver, cutting the deficit to one.

Dunlop followed with a one-out single and moved to second on a wild pitch, putting the game-tying run in scoring position.

But Shiver bounced back to retire Bailey and Dyer to wrap up the Game 1 victory.

In Game 2, the Red Devils jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first only to see the Seminoles take advantage of two errors to tie the game in the bottom of the frame.

Loganville struck for two more runs against Salem starting pitcher Drew Dentler in the top of the second. But the Seminoles added two more runs on an error in the bottom of the second.

The Red Devils added single runs in the third and fifth, taking a 6-4 lead.

However, Salem came roaring back in the bottom of the fifth. Crumbley, Lamb and Logan Singleton led off with singles to load the bases. The Seminoles scored a run off a double play before Gibson's delivered a clutch two-out single to tie the game.

However, in the top of the seventh, Loganville's Brandon Cruce blasted a two-out, three-run homer that appeared to put the final nails in Salem's 2008 coffin.

But, once again, the Seminoles rallied in the bottom of the frame.

Bailey, a pinch-hitter, singled to lead off the inning and moved to second on Gibson's single. After the runners moved up a base on a tapper in front of the plate, Dunlop delivered an RBI single to slice Salem's deficit to 9-7.

And then, Loganville relief pitcher Blake McCullers balked in Gibson to bring the Seminoles within a run.

But McCullers struck out Dentler and induced Dyer into a game-ending groundout to wrap up the victory and the series.

"We had a bunch of opportunities and scored on some and didn't score on others. Both teams did that," Davis said. "In the Final Four, teams are supposed to capitalize on opportunities. I thought each team would be able to hit the ball, because we know each other extremely well.

"They have a good lineup and it's tough to keep them from scoring runs, and I just felt like our guys believed they could score on anybody. Their pitchers are tough and, when we got some things going, they were good enough to keep us from stringing a lot of runs together."

Jeff Gillespie can be reached at jeff.gillespie@rockdalecitizen.com.

Salem grad leads team to state semifinals

Brandon Evans
Sports Writer

CONYERS - In 1996, Chris Davis probably thought his best days on Salem's baseball field were over. But 12 years later, Davis is leading his team to the Final Four of the Class AAAA state baseball playoffs.

Davis, a 1996 graduate of Salem High School, was part of the school's second graduation class and a standout player for the Seminoles' baseball team.Under Coach Baum, Davis shined at first base and was twice selected to the Citizen's All-Area Team.Davis was also a winner at Salem and remembered exactly what he felt like his senior year. "We were sub-region champs three times and region champs my senior year. That year, we were a team that was probably expected to do a lot, but we were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs," Davis said.

Flash forward to today.Davis now finds himself on a field that hardly resembles the one he competed on as a player. "It's neat how everything here has changed," he said. "Our concession stand was a bank teller up on the hill. We didn't have a press box, we didn't have locker rooms, we had nothing. It was just a fence with dirt in the middle."Still, Davis finds he can still equate his '96 team to the team that will take the field Monday in the state semifinals."I think the similarities between that team and this team is we had 10 seniors on that team and we have seven seniors on this team. Both teams had seniors that have been playing together for a long time," Davis said.

"The difference is that we have a lot more underclassmen on this team that have really stepped up. We have a great group of underclassmen that have stepped up and play big roles on this team.""I think that this senior class is a group of guys that have always been winners. Some of them have been playing together since they were 5-years-old. They expect to win and they know how to win. The big thing is that these guys don't allow anything to faze them or the rest of the team, as far as adversity goes."

But it's not just the caliber of players that has allowed Davis to have such a special connection with this team."I think, if nothing else, I understand where they're coming from, as far as being a part of this program. Being someone who was part of a team similar to this, I understand a little about the pressures involved," Davis said. "When you're in the moment, one of the things you sometimes forget to do is enjoy it. I think that's one thing that this team has done very well. They've enjoyed their success right now and I think it's helping them play. They're not worrying about losing, they're having fun."

This year's team has already set numerous school records. Besides setting the school record for wins, the 2008 Seminoles have advanced further in the playoffs than any other team in school history."It means a lot to me. But, it means more to me to see how much it means to them," Davis said. Brandon Evans can be reached at brandon.evans @rockdalecitizen.com

(ALBANY TRIBUNE ARTICLE)

Trojans ousted

• Lee County’s season ends Wednesday with a 4-1 loss to Salem as the Trojans fall one game short of reaching their second consecutive GHSA Class AAAA Final Four.

Derek Barichello LEESBURG — It took only one Lee County pitch for groans to spread around Trojans Field. Salem’s Dustin Dunlop hit a slow-rolling groundball to third base that the Trojans fielded and threw away.

The two-base error was followed one out later with another error, two runs and a bad case of déjà vu.“It was like, ‘here we go again,’” Lee County coach Rob Williams said.That’s because it was approximately 23 hours earlier the Trojans committed five errors and lost Game 1 of the GHSA Class AAAA quarterfinals the same way. Following another five-error game, Lee County’s problem of the season finally ended it as the Trojans lost the decisive third game, 4-1, and thwarted hopes of returning to a second consecutive Final Four.

“That’s been our Achilles’ heel all year,” Williams said a day after his Trojans won 10-2 in Game 2 behind an error-free performance. “We played poor defense and that’s nobody’s fault but mine. That put us behind the 8-ball and we couldn’t catch up.”While the season came to an end prematurely by Lee County standards, Williams declared his 19th season with the Trojans a success.“To start the season, the prognosticators picked us to finish third in the region, and we won it,” said Williams as the Trojans finished 23-11. “Then we weren’t supposed to get past the first round and we weren’t supposed to get past the second round. We won both of those. And to do all that after starting 3-7 on the season, I’d say that’s just a credit to our kids’ character.”

Though the Trojans were not able to make the comeback Wednesday that never-say-die attitude still showed up. The Trojans trailed 2-0 for five innings thanks to a strong outing from sophomore starter Justin McCalvin. After escaping a disastrous first with two unearned runs, he settled in and allowed two earned runs on six hits in six innings. “The errors didn’t bother me that much,” McCalvin said. “I just didn’t want it to happen any more. When I settled in, I had my curveball working and I was throwing groundballs.”

McCalvin did not walk a batter until the sixth, and when he did, he paid for it. Dunlop stepped to the plate after the base on balls and blasted a two-run home run off the trees in left field to make it 4-0.“Yeah, that was a mistake,” McCalvin said. “It was a fastball at his knees and he did his job.”

To chants of “Let’s Go Trojans” from the home crowd, Lee County tried for a little magic in the seventh.When Colton Glover led off with a double and Kent Patrick reached on an error, it appeared something might happen. But after Glover scored on a groundout from Jeremy Sheffield, the rally was killed with two consecutive fly outs.

“I don’t think the home run (in the sixth) took the fight out of us,” Williams said. “I think it just made it a harder road.”When it was all said and done, Trojans’ players shared hugs and family members took pictures as nine seniors, eight of whom made contributions this week, are lost to graduation.

Game Notes

•Update on Brewer: Salem's Jonathon Brewer, who was injured in a collision with catcher Zach Hood in Tuesday's game, was diagnosed with a broken neck in between his fifth and sixth vertebrae.He was transported to a hospital in Atlanta to get a second opinion but if there is no change in his prognosis, he is scheduled to have surgery today.

 • Rallying Around: After all that happened to the Seminoles on Tuesday night, with Brewer's injury, top hitter Drew Dentler’s ejection and suspendion, and a 10-2 loss, the Seminoles rallied around each other."Jonathan wanted these guys to play baseball," Salem coach Chris Davis said. "That was the best way for us to give something back to him was with a win. That way he can come back and watch us.