Houston County baseball snaps Pope’s 25-game winning and nine-year semifinals streak with sweep in Marietta

MARIETTA — For the last three years, Houston County and Pope’s seasons have ended at each others hands.

It’s a rivalry unlike traditional regional or city foes, there’s always a sense of dread when the Bears have to make the trek up to Jeff Rowland field where the Greyhounds made nine straight semifinals appearances until now.

There was a similar feeling this time around, but there was also an air of confidence. Like HoCo was ready to visit the grave of their 2024 season and exact revenge.

And that they did.

There was no having to sell the moment, there was no Game 2 lull. There was only grit, determination and, ultimately, victory for coach Matt Hopkins and the Bears by scores of 6-4 and 4-2. They will now advance to the semifinals for the third year in a row.

“Honestly I don’t really have words. It’s one of those where you feel nervous coming here because of the previous three [trips], you’ve just not been able to get it done,” Hopkins said postgame. “But you know, I think at the end of the day, I would say [I’m feeling] relief. But the whole time I think I felt good the last week. I love where our guys are at.”

Three observations:

The guts on Ganas

With the second out on the board in the top of the seventh of Game 2, the third base umpire inched his way closer to the HoCo dugout and warned them not to run out on to the field after the game.

But as reliever Tyson Ganas delivered strike three to a swinging Greyhound a few Bears couldn’t help but trickle out of the dugout. Ganas roared down from the mound after delivering in yet another clutch situation.

Max Willhide started the nightcap for HoCo and pitched a solid five innings, but the sixth is when things started to unravel.

A hit-by-pitch and a deep double to right field put two on for Pope, down 3-0; Two sacrifice flies later the score was 3-2 and Ganas was asked to come in after Willhide’s 5.2 innings.

The Pope crowd was rocking by that point and the student section came back to life after they’d been silenced in Game 1.

HoCo asked Ganas to deliver the four most important outs of his life up to that point, they asked him to seal their semifinals appearance.

Much like the region championship series, Ganas answered the call.

“That’s why we pitched him so much early in the year,” Hopkins said of Ganas. “It’s why we’ve been trying to get him the experience and get it under his belt and make sure that he’s ready for that moment. And it wasn’t too big for him. I don’t think anybody told him he was at Jeff Rowland field and, hey, ‘You’re not supposed to do well.’ Because he went out there and competed really hard and it was really good to see.”

Ganas struck out three of the five batters he saw despite the Greyhounds desperately trying to stay alive.

The first two batters of the seventh fouled off two pitches a piece, the first took Ganas to a seven-pitch at-bat.

The tying run came up to the plate and on a 1-2 count took a big swing that met nothing but air as the pop of the glove and umpire’s grunt signified a HoCo victory and celebration in the Bears’ dugout.

The Bobrowski game

The biggest threat to HoCo’s Game 1 hopes was Nick Bobrowski.

The junior lefty doesn’t offer much in terms of top velocity, but what he lacks in that department he makes up for with change in speed and break in his pitches.

Bobrowski punished Northgate in Game 1 of the round two doubleheader with 11 strikeouts, and even on an off day he still struck out nine HoCo batters.

Bobrowski found himself in several 3-0 counts, and though plenty of them became strikeouts, they didn’t help his case as he hit six batters and walked two more in 4.2 innings.

HoCo was gifted base runners, but Bobrowski and the Greyhounds’ defense still made it difficult for the Bears. The best they could do was battle and run his pitch count up in an attempt to run him off the bump.

“I can’t tell you how excited I was to see that guy leave the field,” Hopkins said. “He is really stinking good. That’s one of the better arms we’ve seen and we couldn’t put good swings on him. Luckily we just kept battling and got his pitch count up and started getting more guys on and they went to the [bullpen] and we did what you’re supposed to do when you get in the pen.”

Who will it be this week, or next week?

Every important series it feels like a different unlikely hero surfaces for the Bears.

In the region championship series Ganas hit his first home run of the season — Hopkins said he hadn’t even hit one in batting practice.

This time around it was Logan Elbie.

“I’d just say it’s our guys doing a great job. It’s our guys executing the plan that we do during the week. It’s our guys doing exactly what they’re supposed to do,” Hopkins said of the unpredictability in the batting order. “It’s also what makes a lineup difficult when you don’t know who it’s gonna be and you don’t know how to pitch. ‘Hey, you got through this guy, who’s next?’ Oh, well that guy can hit a bomb too.”

I’m not sure if you’d call the cleanup spot an “unlikely hero,” but when it comes to hitting two bombs in one series it seems like it applies.

Elbie went yard in both games, each to left field.

The first one came in the opening inning of Game 1 on a full count; It was a no-doubter that sailed over the Pope Baseball logo in left field and sent the dugout into a frenzy.

The second was another two-run bomb crushed to left field with no regard for the innocent bystanders in the bleachers. That put HoCo up 3-0 in the third inning and in complete control of the game for a time.

This week it was Elbie, who will it be next week?

UP NEXT

The Bears still have more baseball. Next up is Loganville at home on Tuesday, May 13. Time is to be determined.