Playoff fever

The Madison County baseball team made plenty of playoff memories at its old ballpark.

But the new park has been void of any playoff action during its four years of existence.

That changes next week.

With a second-place finish in the region, the Raiders will host a first-round playoff series for the first time at its new field.

“It’s a new season starting next week,” coach Charlie Griffeth said Wednesday morning before Madison County’s regular season finale. “I’m excited that it’s the first state playoff game at the new park.”

The playoffs start May 8. Madison County (20-6, 16-4) will face a foe from Region 7-AAAA.

The Raiders lost their final regular season game, falling to Winder-Barrow 3-0 on the road Wednesday.

Winder-Barrow went up 2-0 in the first inning with a two-run homer from Jeremy Donaldson and added an insurance score in the sixth inning.

Bulldogg pitching limited Madison County to just six hits.

Madison County entered the game having shelled opponents with a combined 45 runs in its three previous games.

Madison County beat Apalachee 18-1 (April 22), Clarke Central 16-4 (Friday) and Cedar Shoals 11-3 (Monday). The Raiders socked eight homeruns in the win over Apalachee.

Madison County reached the 20-win plateau for the second-straight season with Monday’s victory over Cedar Shoals.

The program hasn’t enjoyed back-to-back 20-win seasons since 1995-1996.

“I think we’ve been more consistent this year than we have in a long time with the play,” Griffeth said before the Winder-Barrow game. “There weren’t any hot streaks or cold streaks. It was pretty consistent.”

•Madison Co. 11, Cedar Shoals 3 (April 27): Madison County struck for six runs in the first inning and added five in the third in an 11-3 whipping of woeful Cedar Shoals (1-18) in Athens Monday.

Ethan Seagraves pitched four innings for the win, surrendering just one run. Ben Morris worked the final three innings of relief.

Offensively, Seth Fleming drove home three runs as Madison County scored 10 runs or more for the 13th time this year.
Dustin Roberts added three hits and an RBI and Ian Drake had two hits and two RBIs.

Bracken Turner hit a rare inside-the-park home run as part of Madison County’s six-run first inning.

•Madison Co. 16, Clarke Central 4 (April 24): Roberts hit a walk-off grandslam in the sixth inning Friday against Clarke Central (9-10), bringing the run-rule into effect in Madison County’s 16-4 win over the Gladiators.

The Raiders jumped on the visiting Gladiators early with four runs in the first inning and four more in the third en route to an easy win on Senior Night.

Seagraves led Madison County with three hits and three RBIs, while Roberts (two hits, four RBIs), Drake (two hits, three RBIs) and Morris (two hits, two RBIs) enjoyed multi-hit games.

Madison County tacked on six runs in the sixth inning, starting with a solo homer from Bo Dalton.

Starting pitcher Jack May remained perfect on the season, pitching four innings for the victory, surrendering two hits.

•Madison Co. 18, Apalachee 1 (April 22): The Raiders enjoyed another round of homerun derby last Wednesday, slugging eight homers in an 18-1 clobbering of Apalachee.

Dalton (four RBIs) and Fleming (three RBIs) both homered twice, while Drake (two hits, two RBIs), Roberts (one hit, three RBIs), Turner (one hit, three RBIs) and Seagraves (two hits, two RBIs) all hit one homerun.

This wasn’t the first game in which Madison County has homered in excess.

Madison County went deep seven times March 18 in a 17-1 win over Monroe Area.