JACKSON County finished in a three-way tie for first place in a Region 8-AAA race that came down to the final day, but the Panthers were awarded only a three seed for the 8-AAA tournament.
Since there was no clear tie-breaker between Jackson County, Morgan County and Oconee County — all which finished with 5-2 records — overall records came into play.
By virtue of their 13-14-1 record, Jackson County — now ranked no. 9 in Class AA —slid to the no. 3 seed.
While a no. 1 seed would have been nice, wins in the actual region tournament are what matter.
“Like I told the girls, the only thing that we were playing for was a number spot, one through eight,” coach Chessie Laird said.
The Panthers face no. 6 seed Elbert County Monday at West Jackson Park in the opening round of the region tournament. The Monday-Tuesday rounds are double elimination. Those making it to the final four starting Thursday will play in best-of-three series. Those series will be played at the higher seed’s home field.
The race to the final four in Region 8-AAA could be unpredictable.
“With the way our region is and only playing everybody once, it has definitely put a spin on things,” Laird said.
The Panthers could have claimed the no. 1 seed outright but lost to Morgan County 5-3 Monday on the road.
Jackson County trailed 5-0 until the top of the seventh. The Panthers plated three runs but couldn’t complete the rally.
“We couldn’t get the last few runners through and it just fell short,” Laird said. “We had people on base earlier but we just weren’t able to drive them in, so kind of the same thing we’ve been plagued with throughout the season.”
Jackson County got in a little tournament action prior to the region tournament, playing four games and going 2-2 at the Friday-Saturday Brookwood Invitational.
Jackson County lost to Collins Hill (7-0) and West Forsyth (4-0) and beat Veterans High School (9-6) and Dacula (9-0).
