Familiar territory, familiar foe for Hurricanes in state quarterfinals

The Cartersville baseball Hurricanes are in familiar territory in the GHSA Class AAAA quarterfinals and will travel to face a familiar foe Tuesday, the Buford Wolves.

Both programs have strong baseball traditions and both have recent state titles.

Cartersville (18-11) has swept its first two state playoff opponents — Redan and Thomson — to reach the Elite Eight of Class AAAA. The Canes have won six state titles (’01, ’02, ’03, ’08, and ’09, '13) since 2001 and have multiple deep runs in the state tournament during that span. Buford (27-3) is the defending Class AAAA champion and has swept Whitewater and Bainbridge to reach the 2016 quarterfinals. The Wolves also won state titles in 1977 and 2011 and were in the Final Four in 2005, 2006, and 2014.

Both teams have relied on the strength of their pitching in the early rounds of the playoffs.

The Canes got complete game pitching performances last week from both Elliott Anderson and Anthony Seigler against Thomson.

Buford’s Justin Glover, a Georgia signee, tossed a no-hitter through four innings and struck out eight in the Wolves’ opening win last week. Then Georgia Tech signee, Griffin Jollif, struck out three and allowed only one hit in five innings for the Wolves’ series-clinching win.

The best-of-three quarterfinal series begins with a doubleheader Tuesday (May 10) at 4:30pm at Gerald McQuaig Baseball Field in Buford City Park. A third game, if needed, will be on Wednesday — also at Buford.

The survivor of the Cartersville/Buford series advances to the Class AAAA Final Four to play the winner of the Eastside at St. Pius X series.

GHSA Class AAAA Quarterfinal pairings: May 10-11 Eastside at St. Pius X

Cartersville at Buford Veterans at Woodward Academy Heritage-Catoosa at Locust Grove