With its first regular season in Class AAA approaching a conclusion, the Gordon Lee High School baseball team is right where it hoped to be.
Despite moving up two classes after a controversial reclassification by the GHSA, the Trojans have more than held their own with three weeks remaining before the postseason begins, including Friday evening’s decisive five-inning 11-0 win at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe.
After completing a two-game series sweep of the Warriors and winning for the ninth time in their past 10 games, the Trojans (13-5, 5-1) are tied for second in Region 6 with Adairsville and a game behind Ringgold.
Gordon Lee and Ringgold will close the regular season when they meet on April 18 and again two days later, a two-game set that will likely decide the region champion.
“We’ve got Bremen coming up, and they went toe to toe with Ringgold, so we’re not going to overlook anybody,” Gordon Lee coach Mike Dunfee said. “I hope it comes down to us and Ringgold. It would be a lot of fun. I don’t want to jump to anything, but it will be fun because a lot our kids played together when they were younger.”
Friday’s win was especially satisfying to Dunfee on two fronts. One, sophomore starting pitcher Aiden Goodwin continued to shine, limiting the Warriors to one hit and striking out six batters in four innings.
Also, the Trojans managed 12 hits in five innings against LFO (10-9, 2-4). Only two went for extra bases, including Kade Cowan’s two-run homer in the third inning, but the knocks were spread across the lineup. Gordon Lee’s bottom three hitters — Jackson Scali, Goodwin and Ty Thompson — combined for four hits and five runs scored.
“Aiden has worked really hard and he’s established himself as our No. 3 starter,” Dunfee said. “He pitched in middle relief for us last year as a freshman and put some weight on this offseason. If he continues to develop, we expect big things from him.
“Offensively, we’ve got some speed. There’s a little bit of pop in the lineup, but we don’t need to try to hit homers and be greedy. We got into that mode for a bit, but we have to just do those little things and just buy into putting it in play like we did tonight.”
The Trojans sent 10 batters to the plate in the second inning, scoring five times on five hits — all singles. No. 9 hitter Thompson singled in the game’s first two runs, with Nate Dunfee adding an RBI single and Blake Rodgers a two-run single. Cowan’s homer highlighted a four-run third inning.
Cowan, Dunfee, Goodwin and Rodgers had two hits each for Gordon Lee, which begins its two-game series with Bremen on Tuesday.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.