Class 6A Preview: Regions 3 & 4

January 22, 2019
By PBR Georgia Staff

Welcome to PBR Georgia’s 6A week!

We continue our Georgia high school coverage, now that we’re about 19 days out from the first pitch of the GHSA season. Today, we’ll continue breaking down the 6A class by honing in on regions 3 and 4, after covering regions 1 and 2 yesterday.

We kicked off our GHSA coverage last week by analyzing the entire 7A class. Here are links to those preview posts, in case you missed them:

Regions 1, 2, and 3 here.
Regions 4 and 5 here.
Region 6 here.
Regions 7 and 8 here.
7A Playoff Predictions here.

Keep checking back all throughout the week for 6A content spanning all eight of the class’ regions.

REGION 3

Plain and simple, Region 3 is a wide open race with four or five of the region’s six programs harboring a realistic shot at heading into the state tournament as this group’s champion. However, the reigning title winners are probably Region 3’s favorites – the Conyers school Heritage cruised to last year’s crown with a 13-2 record in regional play. This spring, they’re returning eight of last spring’s starters, including RHP Griffin Holcombe. The Coastal Carolina commit led the program in punch-outs a year ago as a junior and is ready to be the Patriots go-to arm in a much more competitive region in 2019.

LHP Nolan Woodward (uncommitted) was also heavily leaned upon in this rotation a year ago, and will help make up a reliable one-two punch for Heritage in the rotation. OF/RHP Darryl Buggs is a two-way junior who made a handful of relief appearances on last year’s varsity squad and earned a ton of reps in the batter’s box, hitting over .300 as a sophomore, too.

Of course, the lone starter absent from last year’s region winners was their most productive player: OF Caleb Ramsey, a forgone Butler commit who opted to sign with the Boston Red Sox after being drafted in the 25th round last June. He hit over .500 for the Patriots and led the team in virtually every major offensive category by a substantial margin. The gaping hole left in the lineup upon Ramsey’s graduation is what has shoved the door to Region 3’s top spot wide open.

Despite finishing a game under .500 in last year’s region, Lakeside (Evans) is precisely the kind of upstart program that could force its way to the top come April. Led by senior RHP Will Childers (Georgia), one of the state’s top-ranked pitchers, the Panthers are returning six starters to their dugout this spring – one that was particularly young in 2018. A valuable year of experience notched under the belts, Lakeside is a promising program with the kind of talent in place to steal one of this region’s top seeds in the state tournament.

Childers groomed an ERA that hovered just above 2.00 last year and was actually among this team’s best offensive weapons, too, though his next-level home is clearly on the mound. Senior staffmate Davis Cook operated as the team’s No. 2 starter last spring and that remains unchanged headed into February. His sub-3.00 ERA is just the kind of back-up Childers and the Panthers will need if they’re set to contend for more than just a state tourney berth.

Pitching is certainly this team’s depth, so keep an eye out for junior southpaw Christian Davis. He didn’t get much of a look as an underclassman on last year’s varsity team, but he’s a good bet to make a positive impact on the mound beyond the aforementioned Cook and Childers.

Manufacturing runs was actually this team’s specialty a season ago. They upset Region 4’s No. 1 seed Tucker in the first round of last year’s tournament, gashing their pitching for 24 runs scored before allowing 23 of their own in the next round to Valdosta. Combining last year’s ability to score with the depth of its pitching, and all of a sudden it’s easy to talk yourself into a big year for Evans’ Lakeside.

Yet another Region 3 program returning most of its starters is the Grovetown Warriors. Six of last year’s starters, from a team that earned an unlikely berth in the state quarterfinals, are back. Among them, SS/RHP James Heramb-Eckert (uncommitted), an all-around athlete who was arguably the Warriors’ most productive hitter a season ago as just a sophomore. Over the summer, our staff had the opportunity to see him at the PBR-hosted Peach State Games. There, he looked like a plus defender at shortstop with a developing right-handed bat. He’s also a projectable arm on the mound and will only get better as he bulks up.

While Heramb-Eckert continues to improve from the mound, Grovetown RHP Malik Germany might be this staff’s go-to arm in the games that matter most in 2019. The senior clearly occupied the same role for the Warriors last year and is prepared to thrive atop the rotation again, where he maintained an ERA in the 2.50 range, which helped him garner some end-of-the-year attention in the form of various all-state awards and mentions.

Both these players’ contributions are vital to Grovetown’s success in 2019. The Warriors’ record this spring will be directly correlated with the performances of Heramb-Eckert and Germany.

James Heramb-Eckert (8/12/18)

We’ve yet to cover the team that actually finished second in this region in 2018, the Greenbrier Wolfpack. At 9-6, Greenbrier was able to cling to a second-place finish by a game over the Warriors. The Wolfpack won 25 games last spring and earned an appearance in the state quarterfinals but lost in game three to Alpharetta. It was a successful season for the 2015 state champs and there’s more to look forward to this spring, too.

We’ve covered a handful of programs with serious run-stoppers atop their rotation and Greenbrier’s best two pitchers belong in that conversation. Senior RHP Bryce Melear (Georgia) and junior RHP Chase Dollander (Georgia Southern) are capable of tag-teaming Greenbrier to the top of Region 3. Melear is a lanky 6-foot-1 projection arm with mid-80s stuff as it is – though, he’s a prime candidate to tack on velocity as he further matures, and the Wolfpack hopes that he progresses throughout the spring. He struck out 99 batters in 2018 and finished the year with an ERA a tick under 1.00.

Our staff also saw Dollander last May and he, like Melear, is the picture-perfect definition of projection. He’s filled with the ingredients to become one of the region’s best pitchers, just like Melear. Dollander wrapped up the spring with an ERA of 2.36 as just a sophomore.

If these two make the necessary gains we forecast in their futures, Greenbrier is among the last program’s your favorite team would want to oppose in May.

Chase Dollander (5/12/18)

Based from a pure entertainment perspective, there might not be a more fun team to watch than Alcovy this spring. Cast aside their 2-13 regional record last spring, the Tigers were uber young and will once again be steered by juniors and sophomores. The Tennessee-committed two-way star Ryan Spikes is the No. 115-ranked sophomore on PBR’s national board. At October’s PBR Georgia Deep South Invite, Spikes swung with controlled aggression and is a better athlete than one might surmise at first glance. He’s an off-the-radar candidate to be at the top of Region 3’s batting leaders and could lead the charge in Alcovy’s turnaround season.

Backing up Spikes in the batting order is junior OF Chandler Hicks. We saw Hicks at the Deep South Invite last spring, too, where he stood out for his athleticism and fast twitch in the right-handed batter’s box. He’s growing as a defender, but it’s apparent that the Tigers have two real building blocks for their program to look forward to, both in 2019 and 2020.

Ryan Spikes (10/14/18)

Finally, there’s Evans High, which went 6-9 in regional play last spring and 13-15 overall. Senior ace Joshua Lanham is the prospect to watch here. The righty is committed to South Carolina-Sumter and finished 2018 with an ERA of 1.85 and was able to contribute offensively as well, hitting .329 and struck out just four times in the season.

REGION 4

From the early looks of it, Region 4’s title race might be made up of two horses, reigning champs Tucker and 2018 third-place finishers Stephenson. The Tucker Tigers lost a couple key players to graduation, making a title defense an uphill battle. Former shortstop Trevon Flowers, one of the team’s best bats, was roaming the Volunteers’ secondary at Tennessee this past fall and is preparing for the baseball season currently. And since-graduated outfield speedster Miles Grayson is now at Morehouse College.

Glossing over those losses won’t be easy, but Tucker is still equipped with the personnel to do it. Taking over for Flowers at shortstop will be senior Jordan West (uncommitted), who hit over .300 while playing the other side of second base last spring. Senior OF Miles Bowen (uncommitted) was the team’s most productive weapon on offense in 2019, slugging seven homers. He, too, is a two-sport star.

Tucker isn’t without a glaring weakness, however. The Tigers graduated many of their innings-eaters from a season ago. They have the offense to rely on run support to win games, but they’ll need to find outs somewhere.

Given the uncertain state of the Tigers staff, and conversely the quality in Stephenson’s rotation, it might be fair to give the Jaguars the edge when it comes to the favorites in Region 4.

Stephenson will call upon RHP Ga’von Wray, a Tennessee commit, for its biggest games of the spring. The 6-foot-3 senior is the No. 26-ranked prospect in the state’s 2019 class. Wray famously threw four no-hitters in 2018 and finished the spring with a 0.89 ERA to go along with 89 strikeouts in under 60 innings pitched. It was a remarkable season for Wray, though the Tigers spring unceremoniously in the first round of the playoffs, after being outscored 22-1 in their series with Greenbrier.

Supporting Wray in the rotation and in the lineup in LHP/1B Joseph Jackson. As a freshman in 2018, Jackson threw the second-most innings and was effective, especially when factoring in his age. He ended the spring with an ERA of 3.50, and he struck of 44 batters in 35 frames of work. Jackson’s impact was even greater on offense, where he led the team with a batting average of .385 – he also tied Wray for the most doubles on the team (7).

Wray and Jackson are a threat to the rest of Region 4, capable of bulldozing the Jaguars to a first-place finish.

Other prospects to keep an eye out for this spring in Region 4: OF Jeremy Cain (Martin Luther King, Jr., 2020), LHP Rahmir Vaughn (Mt. Zion, 2019), OF Julius Wynn (Mt. Zion, 2019), OF Zach Porter (Mundy’s Mill, 2020), SS Seth Leonard (Jonesboro, 2020), INF Brandon Garner (Jonesboro, 2020), RHP/INF Brycen Myrick (Jonesboro, 2020), C/OF Ethan Phan (Drew, 2020), INF Kendall Dolphin (Drew, 2019), and OF/2B Jalen Bowen (Drew, 2019).

Check back in with us tomorrow as we prepare to dissect two big regions in the 6A class, regions 5 and 6. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter @PBRGeorgia for the latest prep baseball news and notes.