Nightmarish 7th Costs Hillgrove Title

LILBURN—Three outs from its first state baseball championship Monday, picked the worst time possible to have its worst inning of a great season.

Having scored 13 or more runs in only six of 38 games this season, baseball team picked the perfect time to score that many in a single inning.

Trailing 10-8 after six innings of Memorial Day's decisive third game of the Georgia High School Association AAAAA championship series, the Panthers exploded for 13 runs on 11 hits to rout the Hawks and claim the title, 21-10.

"We knew we wanted to add more than just the three we needed" to take the lead in the top of the seventh, said Parkview second baseman Travis Naraine, whose first single in the seventh cut Hillgrove's lead to 10-9 and whose second that inning extended Parkview's lead to 18-10. "We just wanted to keep it going."

As Hillgrove fans stood hushed in shock, Parkview sent 15 players to bat and kept rounding the bases.

Josh Hart's sacrifice fly drove in the tying run, then Matt Olson, who hit two homers in Game 2 Saturday, cracked a three-run shot to give the Panthers all they'd need with a 13-10 advantage. Jeff Ronprin followed with a solo blast, and Edwin Arias added a three-run dinger, his second of the game, for the final margin.

"I knew they were going to throw me that fastball," Arias said of his seventh homer. "I just waited on it."

Olson, whose team-high 17 home runs helped the Panthers (29-10) to their fourth state championship and first under seventh-year coach Chan Brown, said he felt relaxed when he stepped into the batter's box with the score tied, two men on and one out.

"When I get in that (situation), I get a sense," the junior said. "I felt more relaxed than I thought I would."

Hillgrove, which used six pitchers, couldn't stop the onslaught.

"You have to give Parkview all kinds of credit for that amazing inning," said Hawks Coach David Richardson, whose team won Region 4-AAAAA before its big playoff run. "Thirteen runs on 11 hits is incredible.

"We were three outs from winning a state title."

Once Hillgrove's Robert Stewart salvaged a split in Saturday's opening doubleheader with a three-run homer in the 10th inning of Game 2 for , the Hawks believed a championship in their fifth season of existence was possible.

That nearly became a reality in the third inning Monday when Hillgrove (29-9) got six runs on three hits and two errors to turn an 8-4 deficit into a 10-8 lead, following the Hawks' .

Tyler Graham's two-run homer was the big blow in the inning, and Hillgrove appeared on the verge of being victorious in its first championship series.

But in the end, Parkview claimed its first state championship since 2002.

Jack Esmonde (4-1), Parkview’s second reliever, earned the win in Georgia's first championship-series game of more than 30 combined runs since 2005.