Harris County, Jordan hit the road

Neither Harris County nor Jordan are coming into the playoff playing their best ball of the season. The Tigers have lost six of their past eight, while the Red Jackets have dropped eight of their past 10.

That’s why both open up postseason play as 4 seeds on the road, taking on a top seed in their respective classifications.

It’s not an ideal situation, but there is good news: Nothing that happened prior to Friday’s first round matters. As Jordan coach Tony Dimitri said, they’re just trying to scrape together two wins any way they can.

“It’s just like everybody else,” he said. “You want to win two games no matter how you do it.”

The Red Jackets will get Westside-Augusta, while Harris County draws Northgate.

For the Tigers, they know just how dangerous a team like Northgate can be. The Vikings won a state championship in 2009 and have come close a handful of other times.

Tigers coach Steve Westmoreland said he isn’t real familiar with the players on Northgate this season, but he is familiar with the coach, Todd Herrington, who is in his first year with the Vikings after leaving LaGrange. What he knows about Herrington is enough to know how dangerous Northgate can be.

“We’re familiar with how he runs his program, as well as the general talent level of Northgate,” he said. “Obviously, they’re really good. They’ve got three or four pitchers who can really throw it, they throw and catch well, and a few guys can hit the ball out of the park.”

Harris County has struggled at the plate recently, but Westmoreland knows if he can get his team going again, it is as capable as anyone of pulling an upset.

Jordan goes into the series facing issues with depth and youth, two things Dimitri said have plagued it throughout the season. The pitching rotation isn’t deep, something that can be a major disadvantage this time of the year.

Dimitri said it will just be a matter of managing his Nos. 1 and 2 starters, Bryce Long and John Kropaczewski, hoping to take the first two and figuring out how to handle the staff should a Game 3 become necessary.

But he knows how good Westside-Augusta can be. It was in the elite eight a year ago and brough back a number of pieces. One starting pitcher can push 90 with his fastball, and the Nos. 1-4 batters can all swing the bat.

“It’s just a good, solid high school baseball team,” Dimitri said.

It’ll be a matter of which of his teams shows up. Dr. Jekyll — the one that beat Peach County 4-2 in one of its cleanest games of the year — or Mr. Hyde — the one that gave up 26 runs to Brookstone to close the regular season.

“The talent is there, but maybe we’ve just been a little too young and inexperienced,” Dimitri said. “Hopefully, we can scratch two out.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Harris County, Jordan hit the road."