CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – The state of Georgia is home to many of the top high school baseball programs in the country, and seven of them are competing in this week’s 14-team Perfect Game High School Showdown. The tournament, running simultaneously with the PG HS Showdown-Academies, kicked off Thursday and continues through Saturday on the eight beautiful artificial turf fields at Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint.
Three of the Georgia schools on hand here showed up in PG’s Preseason National High School Top 50 Rankings. The trio was led by defending PG High School National Champion Parkview HS (Lilburn, Ga.) at No. 2, Buford HS – No. 2 behind Parkview in last year’s final national rankings – at No. 7 and Cartersville HS at No. 26. They are the cream of what is a very bountiful Peach State crop.
The competition between the schools is intense, the rivalries white-hot. The Buford Wolves, for one, refuse to take a backseat to anyone and may have felt slighted with their No. 2 national ranking last year after winning a Georgia High School Association (GHSA) Class AAAA state championship and finishing with a 34-2 overall record. Never mind that Parkview won the GHSA Class AAAAA state championship and finished 32-2. As stated, Buford isn’t use to taking a backseat to anyone.
These are rivalries brimming with respect, of course, and no one from any of the elite programs will ever be heard dissing one of the others, at least not publicly. It is all part of a recipe that makes Georgia high school baseball as competitive as any state in the Union.
“With our kids, being in Gwinnett County they grew up being a part of Gwinnett County ball,” veteran Buford head coach Tony Wolfe said Thursday afternoon before BHS played its tournament-opener against Ballard HS from Louisville, Ky.
“They’ve grown up playing Parkview and Collins Hill and Brookwood and North Gwinnett and those folks all their lives, so we don’t have to go very far to see good baseball,” he said. “It’s helped our kids develop at a younger age and it certainly makes it easier on a high school coach that we don’t have to travel very far find quality competition.”
An hour before the first-pitch was thrown in that opener, Buford’s players and coaches seemed not only relaxed and upbeat but also very appreciative of being invited to the PG HS Showdown with the opportunities it can provide.
“It’s a great test for us and it’s a great atmosphere for baseball … and it’s really a nice thing to add to your regular season (schedule) instead of just playing non-Region games before you get into region,” Wolfe said. “You get to play in something like this, it’s really a carrot you can wave in front of (the players) in terms of trying to get them ready and get the best out of them every day in practice.”
The most attractive thing about the invitation, in Wolfes’ view, is being able to see somebody new and then being able to gauge how his team stacks up against programs from other states. There are four other teams from Georgia (two), Mississippi and Florida that are included in the top-26 in PG’s National High School Rankings besides the Wolves, and it gives the Buford boys an opportunity to represent their school in a positive manner on a little bit bigger stage.
“Being here with other teams that are just as good or better than us can show us where we are right now,” senior outfielder/infielder/right-handed pitcher and left-handed hitter Brandon Marsh said. “Even if we lose a couple of games here, when we go into Region (play) we can use this as a learning experience against teams from our own area.”
The Wolves overcame some early struggles at the plate against Ballard, breaking up a scoreless tie with three runs in the top of the third inning and making it stand in a 3-0 victory. Seniors Nick Wilhite and Griffin Joliff had RBI singles in the decisive fifth but the real difference came from the mound. Senior Justin Glover threw six four-hit, shutout innings with eight strikeouts and one walk – he also doubled at the plate – and senior right-hander Austin Wilhite worked a 1-2-3 seventh, striking out two.
Things went south quickly for the Wolves later in the day when Sparkman High School (Harvest, Ala.) senior right-hander Breonn Pooler and junior righty Braden Garrison combined on a two-hitter in a 9-1 quarterfinal loss in the single-elimination tournament (Pooler worked six innings and gave up one run on one hit with 10 strikeouts and three walks).
The loss sent the Wolves into the consolation round, meaning there will be no PG HS Showdown title this year. That does nothing to diminish what the program has accomplished in the past seasons and what it can still accomplish this season, of course.
Any amount of success the Wolves enjoy the rest of the way rests on the shoulders of nine seniors, all of whom were part of the state championship run a year ago. “We’re not only going to rely on them for their leadership and their experience but they’ve got to be producers; they’ve got to make things happen,” Wolfe said. “They’ve got to teach our younger guys how to play, as well, and how to play in big moments against quality opponents and how to answer the bell when challenges arise.”
Buford returns seven position players from a year ago, led by the Kennesaw State signee Marsh and Georgia Tech signees – and twin brothers – Nick and Austin Wilhite. The Georgia signee Glover is a primary left-hander pitcher but also plays first base and the Georgia Tech signee Joliff is a primary right-hander who can play either corner-infield position.
PG ranks all five of those prospects in the top-500 nationally with Nick Wilhite (No. 245), Austin Wilhite (No. 248) and Marsh (No. 337) slotting in slightly higher than top-500s Glover and Joliff. The Wilhite brothers are especially intriguing only because they might be as different as identical twins can be. Nick is a 5-foot-10, 170-pound outfielder and left-handed pitcher who hits from the left side, and Austin is a 5-foot-10, 165-pound middle-infielder and right-handed pitcher who hits from the right side.
“They’re two of the finest young men I’ve been around,” Wolfe said. “They’re a pleasure to be around, to watch play, to coach; to watch the way they work at it. Just the character they display in good times and bad, they’re just quality, quality people.”
Wolfe is starting his 20th season as head coach at BHS and he recorded 389 wins over the previous 19, an average of just over 20 per season. He’s led the Wolves to 14 GHSAA state playoff appearances, seven Region championships, a Class AA state championship in 2011 and last year’s Class AAA state championship. They reached the Class AAA final four in 2014 and in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons Buford either reached the final eight or final four and won at least 27 games each year.
“As our success has grown so has that expectation (of winning),” Wolfe said. “It’s not something we have to force upon (the players). When they enter the program they know the guys that have come before them and they’ve seen the success they’ve had at the next level, whether it’s college or in pro ball. There are high expectations and I think we’re getting a better kid both mentally and physically because of that.”
The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Marsh was also part of the Buford football program for the last four years, and what a program that is. The Wolves won seven GHSA state championships between 2007-14 and finished as state runner-up in 2011 and 2015. Head coach Jess Simpson has a 151-10 record in 11 seasons, an average of just under 15 wins per season.
“Buford High School is like no other,” Marsh said. “I’ve been part of the football and baseball program all four years and Coach Simpson has taught me how to be a better man just like Coach Wolfe has been doing. Being a part of successful high school programs has really helped me out and taught me how to stay humble and not get too cocky and really stick to the plan.
“Wearing ‘Buford’ across our chests really means a lot,” he continued. “It’s a small town and the community supports us in anything and everything we do. Everyone comes to everything – any sport, it doesn’t matter – and the support is just unbelievable.”
Marsh hopes to repay that support by becoming more a leader this season, a responsibility all nine seniors are going to have to accept. He admits to deferring to last year’s seniors – the only respectful way of doing things – but now it’s the class of 2016’s turn to step up and take charge.
Most of the classmates have been playing together since their elementary school days and many of them played together for Georgia-based Team Elite during the summer and fall (the Wilhites most recently played with the East Cobb Yankees). Wolfe is encouraged by the Wolves mindset as the season progresses.
“We like our team and we love the way our kids are working and representing our school and our community every day,” Wolfe said. “The No. 1 thing we want is for them to enjoy this. High school baseball goes by really fast and we’re big believers in high school ball and in travel ball. Travel ball is where exposure and opportunities and experience come from but there’s nothing like playing for your community. We want them to take the time to enjoy it.”
With all the success his program enjoyed the last two seasons – combined overall records of 64-7 – and with as many returning players as his roster holds, Wolfe said it would be foolish for he and his staff not to have high expectations of this group for the rest of the season. He’s seen all the preseason rankings and he’s comfortable with that, but that’s not something the Wolves will dwell on.
“We know we’re going to have to focus more on the process and the day-to-day and not try to look at the big picture or get too far ahead of ourselves,” he said. “We feel like we’ve got a team that can make a good run into the playoffs again and how we develop over the next two months will decide just how far we go.”
Oh, and one more thing. While most of Wolfe’s players had visited Perfect Game Park South at LakePoint over the last couple of years while playing with their travel ball teams, Thursday was the first time he and his coaches had made the trip. Count Wolfe among the duly impressed.
“This is my first time walking in and it’s overwhelming; what an amazing facility it is,” he said. “This pretty much looks like baseball heaven for me and I’ve been coaching 34 years; I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Our kids have all been over here but for us coaches this is our first time swinging through this place, and I’ll certainly go home this weekend with a lot of envy and a lot of ideas after seeing this.”
Come back anytime, Coach. You’re always welcome.