MT. AIRY — Chris Akridge insists there have been no deals made with the Devil.
Did someone spike the water perhaps?
“Nope. Just been working hard and building toward this the last couple of years,” the longtime Habersham Central baseball coach said.
Still, for a program that has just one winning season and just one playoff appearance ever in its history -- both in 2006 -- how does anyone explain the Raiders’ almost meteoric rise into one of Class 6A’s best teams to this point in 2019?
Habersham (16-5, 4-2 Region 8-6A) is tied for third in the classification for the most wins (South Paulding has 19 and Greenbrier 18) and recently moved into second place in an always-tough Region 8-6A after last week’s series win over traditional-power Gainesville.
“We’ve been striving to get to this point. It’s been a long battle over the years,” Akridge said. “That was a big series win for these guys last week for their confidence to know they can compete with the top teams. We have a great core of seniors that have gotten better each year and we have some young guys that have stepped up this year.
“But I think last year was the actual turning point.”
In 2018, the Raiders finished 14-16, their best season at that time since that 2006 squad. They missed out on the playoffs by one skinny game after dropping their region finale to Dacula on the final day of the season.
“I think that has really been driving the guys that were on the team last year. They were hungry for success,” Akridge said.
They seem to be gorging themselves on a buffet so far.
Senior Peyton Irvin has been the driving force. He leads the team on the mound with a 6-1 record and in innings pitched (43), strikeouts (54), and ERA (0.97). He also owns a .438 batting average with two home runs, 20 RBI, and a team-leading 28 hits, including a team-leading 11 for extra bases.
But Irvin is not alone. Senior infielder Colby Jones (.349 BA) leads the team in home runs (3) and RBI (25) and fellow seniors Hogan Pitts and Jess Wilbanks, who also have been in the program throughout, have combined for 12 RBI and 21 runs scored. Senior Virgin Islands move-in Alex McFarlane has been a huge addition batting .433 and scoring a team-high 32 runs at the top of the order. McFarlane also is 4-0 with a 1.03 ERA on the mound.
Throw in youngsters like freshman Logan Bogue (.308 BA; 2-3, 2.49 ERA), sophomore Logan Hare (.290 BA, 1 HR, 16 RBI) and junior catcher Christian King (.298 BA, 13 RBI) and it starts to become a little clearer as to how the Raiders have gotten to this point.
“I really feel it’s a combination of the pitching and at the plate. The guys are throwing strikes and we’re really competing in the box,” Akridge said.
They opened the season with seven straight wins and sat 12-3 heading into their region opener against Apalachee. However, even Akridge admitted that because of the history, once they got into region play some apprehension was still prevalent.
“It’s been a long process for sure, but we never doubted that eventually, we could get here,” Akridge said. “Did I expect us to be where we are record-wise? Well, I think we may be a little ahead of where I thought we could be just because of the region we’re in.
“But with the guys we had coming back and the experience, and knowing we had some talented younger players as well, I can’t say I’m too surprised at the same time, though. It’s been pretty crazy so far, in a good way.”
Habersham controls its own destiny after opening region play with a pair of series wins to earn key tiebreakers. But now the Raiders get to see if they can exorcize perhaps their biggest demon so far.
They open a three-game series at home on Monday against Dacula (7-12, 2-4 Region 8-6A) with a chance to win their third region series of the season, a first since that 2006 team.
“This is a huge series,” Akridge said. “We have (Class 6A No. 1-ranked) Winder-Barrow after Dacula and we have a chance to do something special perhaps the next couple of weeks. But we’re really just taking things one at a time, as they say.
“But it’s also a big series for these guys because of last year. That was a tough loss to end the season for the guys still on the team -- they remember it. That should make this week even more interesting.”
