CULLMAN COUNTY – Area baseball play comes to a close on Thursday with four local teams involved in hotly contested affairs.
Playoff berths are at stake for the Fairview Aggies, Good Hope Raiders and West Point Warriors while the Cullman Bearcats are looking to sweep an area foe.
All assignments for Thursday will be doubleheaders. Game start at 4:30 p.m. with the nightcaps to begin at approximately 6:30 p.m.
Class 4A, Area 10
Good Hope at Dora – The Raiders beat the Bulldogs 6-3 at Good Hope Tuesday. A win in the opener in Walker County will clinch the runner-up berth to Cordova, who has won the area. If the Raiders lose the opener, the nightcap will factor in with the winner punching their ticket to the playoffs and the loser finishing out the season next week.
Class 5A, Area 12
West Point at Fairview – A 9-3 win by West Point Tuesday kept the Warriors alive and prevented the Aggies from earning a playoff berth. What concerns these two is the outcome of the Hayden-Curry series. The game was canceled Tuesday night at Hayden because of a lack of umpires. Curry Principal Rod Aaron told the Tribune Tuesday they tried several associations nearby, but were unsuccessful getting a crew to the field and the game was not played.
The series heads to Curry Thursday with both games important in the area standings.
Curry is 3-1 entering Thursday with Fairview 3-2, West Point 2-3 and Hayden 1-3.
Fairview is in good shape with the tie-breaker advantage against Curry and Hayden. West Point has the tiebreaker over Hayden, but lost the tiebreaker to Curry.
If the Warriors take game one from the Aggies Thursday, they have the advantage due to sweeping Fairview, without the tie-breaking game to be included in determining their fate.
A sweep by Hayden and West Point taking game one from Fairview would have all four teams going 3-3 in the six-game area schedule, not counting the tie-breaking game in each series.
Class 6A, Area 14
Cullman at Brewer – The Bearcats have locked up the area title after they edged Brewer 1-0 in nine innings Tuesday at Bill Shelton Field. Cullman is 5-0 with a game left to play.
Brewer is 3-2 with Albertville 2-3 and Fort Payne 0-5. Albertville plays a pair at Fort Payne Thursday with Brewer hosting Cullman for two games.
If Albertville beats Fort Payne and Brewer loses to Cullman, Albertville jumps the Patriots for the runner-up spot in Area 14. Cullman will have home field for the opening round of the state playoffs.
The AHSAA baseball playoffs will begin with the opening round series April 21-22. It's the best of a three-game format. The second round will be the weekend of April 28, the quarterfinals the weekend of May 5, the semifinals the weekend of May 12 with the championship series to be in Montgomery the weekend of May 19.
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