Baseball team misses out on state playoff berth
Staff report
During the final week of the regular season, the White County Warriors did all they could to stay in the race for a berth in the Class AAA tournament by winning the final two games of the Region 6-AAA series with Johnson.
But unfortunately, the Warriors came up just short in the effort to earn an at-large bid for the state playoffs and ended the season with a 14-15 record. The GHSA is now using the Post Season Rankings to determined the state brackets in Class AAA. There were four at-large bids available, but those spots went to Lumpkin County, Mary Persons, Gilmer and Upson-Lee.
In the ranking system, Lumpkin County ended the season with a PSR of 0.524, Mary Persons was 0.519, Upson-Lee was 0.508, with WCHS finishing next among the at-large teams at 0.494. There are five teams that finished behind WCHS in the PSR standings that made the state tournament – Cairo, Stephenson, Richmond Academy, West Hall and Mt. Zion, Jonesboro – but those five teams got automatic berths thanks to finishing in the Top 4 in their respective regions.
Harlem Peach County, North Hall and Troup County are the top four seeds in the state tournament, which begins this week.
Season finale
The Warriors had no trouble finishing off the 2025 season with a pair of wins over Johnson. The Warriors posted a 21-0 in the second game of the series and then rolled to a 16-0 win on Senior Night in the season finale.
In Game 2, the Warriors racked up 21 hits with 14 players recording at least one hit.
Carter Nguyen led the attack with three hits, three runs, and two RBI, while John Bannon, Brayden Roach, Brady Gaddis and Jax Adams each had two hits.
Bannon and Roach each scored two runs and drove in a pair of runs, while Gaddis and Adams both scored a run and drove in a run.
Jackson Krilla had a hit, scored two runs and drove in two runs, with Cooper Garrett and Wesley Presnell each adding a hit two runs and an RBI.
Trevor Butler had a hit, scored a run and drove in two runs, Cole Shelton had a triple and drove in three runs, Josiah Padgett had a hit, scored a run and drove in two runs. Braydon Vogh added a hit, scored a run and drove in a run, Alex Freeman had a hit and scored a run, Shelton Ramey had a hit and an RBI, and Grant Gooch scored a pair of runs.
Josh Adams got the win, allowing a hit and a walk with eight strikeouts in the five inning shutout.
The Warriors wrapped up season with a 16-0 win in three innings last Friday night.
Before the contest, seniors Shelton Ramey, Grant Gooch, Brady Gaddis, Brayden Roach, Caleb Campbell, John Bannon, Trevor Butler and Cole Shelton were honored during a Senior Night ceremony.
The Warriors posted nine runs in the opening inning and finished things off with seven more runs in the second inning on the way to mercy rule win.
Garrett had a pair of hits, scored three times and knocked in five runs. He had a three-run double in the first inning and added a two-run triple in the second inning. Garrett finished the season with a team-high .430 batting average.
Butler had a pair of hits and drove in two runs and scored once, while Ramey had a triple, scored twice and drove in three runs. Roach had a hits, scored twice and knocked in two runs, Bannon had a hit, scored twice and had an RBI, Shelton had a hit and drove in two runs, and Gooch had a hit and scored a run.
Krilla scored a pair of runs,Gaddis scored a run and drove in a run, and Campbell and Nguyen each scored a run.
Gooch worked the first two innings, allowing three hits with four strikeouts, and Ramey pitched the final inning of the season, striking out a pair.