GHSA Baseball: Decisive Game 3’s forced during Wednesday’s quarterfinals

All but one classification solidified the semifinals schedule after Game 3’s were forced in Classes 6A, 5A, 4A, 2A, A-Division I, A-Division II and 1A-3A Private Wednesday.

The outlier was Class 3A, where No. 3 Pickens defeated No. 1 Harlem 8-3, 5-1, No. 5 Troup beat No. 9 Jefferson 9-3, 5-4, No. 6 Cherokee Bluff beat No. 2 North Hall 7-3, 10-2 and No. 4 Peach County defeated Mary Persons 3-2, 3-0.

In the state’s highest class, No. 2 North Gwinnett will face No. 7 North Paulding Thursday at 5 p.m. after the teams split the series. The Bulldogs won 6-5 in the first game and North Paulding rallied for a 4-2 victory in the second game.

In Class 5A, No. 8 Effingham County will host River Ridge after splitting the series with a 5-4 victory for Effingham County in the first game and a 2-0 River Ridge victory in the second game. Also going to a third game is No. 6 Newnan and Habersham Central. Newnan enjoyed a 2-1 victory in the first game before losing 4-2 in the second game.

In Class 4A, No. 2 Marist and No. 3 Blessed Trinity will play Thursday at 6 p.m. after Marist opened with an 8-7 victory and Blessed Trinity answered with a 7-6 victory in the second game. Also facing a Game 3 is No. 4 St. Pius X which split the Wednesday double-header against No. 9 Cartersville. The Hurricanes won 11-7 in the first game before Pius rallied for a 5-3 victory in Game 2.

In Class 2A, top-ranked Morgan County opened with a 4-1 victory against No. 10 Appling County but lost the second game 2-1 and will host Appling Thursday at 4 p.m. in the decisive Game 3.

In Class A Division I, No. 5 Pepperell lost to Bleckley County 6-2 in the first game but rallied to beat the unranked Royals 8-1 in Game 2 to force a third game scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday.

In Class A Division II, top-ranked Lanier County rallied against unranked Metter after losing the first game 4-3. In the second game, Lanier won 12-2 and will host Metter at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Game 3.

In Class 1A-3A Private, No. 2 Lovett will host No. 3 Wesleyan at 6 p.m. Thursday after Wesleyan won 6-3 in the first game but Lovett rallied toward an 8-0 victory in the second game. Greater Atlanta Christian will spend another day in Savannah after a split series with No. 9 Savannah Christian. Unranked GAC lost 5-4 in the first game but won 3-2 in the second game to stay alive.

Follow the link to see the full GHSA baseball playoff brackets.