Cherokee Bluff is hitting the road once again on Tuesday for its Class 3A semifinal series against Peach County, the Bears’ second consecutive season advancing to the Final 4. It’s a destination that most experts probably had written in pen at the start of the season.
And why not? Bluff was coming off a Class 4A state championship series appearance in 2024 and returned the bulk of its powerful lineup and two starters from that group. The Bears entered the season as the preseason No. 1 by the Coaches Box poll and an early favorite to capture their first-ever state title.
But as we all know, seldom do things go as planned. No. 1 starter Tucker Holton opened the season injured, as did Georgia Southern-signee and top returning hitter KT Thompson. Then, they dropped their first two games to Winder-Barrow and Dawson County, and later had a 1-5 stretch to fall to 4-8 and out of the top 10 less than a month into the campaign.
Last week, as the Bears, the No. 11 seed in the tournament, prepared to take on No. 3 North Hall on the road in the quarterfinals, Kemp said his younger self probably would have been asking for a restart to the season.
“I'll be honest with you, young Jeremy Kemp, there would have been a lot of concerns. I probably would have been hitting panic mode,” he said before that series. “We were having to play some guys that normally I wouldn't have played, and the younger me probably wouldn't have had the guts to play them. And that would have hurt us more in the long run.”
But what he did have at his disposal was a group that was built to withstand adversity.
“We have a very mature group,” he said. “With the tough schedule and the injuries that were going on early in the season, we had one main goal, and that was to find ways to get better every week. Fortunately, that hasn’t really changed between the peaks and valleys of the season. For the most part, I feel like we have done that.”
Bluff comes into the semifinals, perhaps peaking at just the right time. They are a perfect 6-0 in the playoffs. Holton has returned, and Thompson is beginning to return to form. The lineup also features the trio of Bryce Fontenot (13 HR, 42 RBI), Ethan England (8 HR, 47 RBI), and Bubba Coleman (9 HR, 34 RBI), who are all hitting .370 or higher.
But it was the Bears’ pitching that stole the series against North Hall. They only needed three pitchers to get through the two-game sweep.
Gabe Gowder tossed a complete game and Landon Kemp and Logan Robinson combined on a 1-hitter as they gave up just six hits and fanned 17 in 14 innings combined in the series.
There will be some similarities in the semifinals.
Last week, North Hall came in allowing just 2.34 runs/game. Bluff racked up 16 hits and 17 runs in the series. Peach County comes in with a team ERA of 2.97 and has allowed just 9 runs (1.50 ERA) while posting a perfect 6-0 playoff record as well.
But there are some differences. The Peach County lineup also is batting .346 for the season and they are scoring a whopping 10.8 runs/game, including the playoffs, led by Scout Willingham (.418, 8 HR, 44 RBI) and DJ Hudson (.404, 4 HR, 52 RBI) with nearly half of their 80 combined hits on the season going for extra bases.
On the mound, they are led by a pair of talented seniors in Jackson Peavy and Hudson, who are both 13-0 on the season. Peavy has 151 strikeouts and has surrendered just 22 hits in 68 1/3 innings, while Hudson has 101 punch-outs in 77 innings.
Kemp said they will need to lean on what may be their biggest strength.
“Experience plays a huge part in this, but also the maturity of our senior and junior leaders in coming in every day ready to get to work, no matter what happened the day before,” he said. “You win, the next day you go to work. You lose, the next day you go to work.”
On paper, this may be their biggest challenge of the season, with or without experience.
“We don’t know a whole lot about (Peach County), but we do know they have really great pitching and a ton of team speed,” Kemp said. “Playoff baseball is about pitching and defense. Those have to be what you hang your hat on.”
It served them well last week. If they want a return trip to the state championship series, they will need a repeat performance.
However, the Bears are just 10-7 on the road but have won 6 of their last 7 away from Flowery Branch. The Trojans, though, are a perfect 18-0 at home in 2025.
The winner gets the winner of the other semifinal between fourth-seeded Troup and No. 8 Pickens, which also begins on Tuesday at Troup. The finals are set for May 19-22 at one of three locations around the state.
BASEBALL SEMIFINAL ROUND PLAYOFF SCHEDULE, Tuesday, May 13
(All series are best-of-3 games at site of higher-seeded team)
(Doubleheaders)
Class 3A
Cherokee Bluff (11) at Peach County (2), 4 p.m.
PREP BASEBALL SEMIFINAL ROUND PLAYOFF SCHEDULE, Wednesday, May 14
(All series are best-of-3 games at site of higher-seeded team)
(Game 3s, if necessary)
Class 3A
Cherokee Bluff (11) at Peach County (2), 1 p.m.
