Indians Fall to Buford in Baseball Season Finale

It appears as if the Stephens County Indian baseball team will come up just short in its bid for the AAAA state baseball playoffs.

The Indians had a 2-0 lead on Buford heading into the bottom of the fifth inning Thursday at Buford.

However, Buford sent 15 men to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning and scored 11 runs to break the game wide open on the way to a 12-2 win over the Indians in the regular season finale for Stephens County.

Stephens County got two runs in the first inning off of Buford starter Kevin Coulter as Ben Cleveland and Evan Rumsey reached base and scored on a two-run double by Zach Boyd.

Indians’ starter Tristen Powell made that 2-0 lead hold up until the fifth, when Dylan Lancaster led off with a walk and then Griffin Jolliff hit a two-run homerun to tie the game.

Nine runs later, Buford had pulled away from the Indians and Jolliff ended the game in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double.

Meanwhile, the Indians got nothing else offensively once Jake Higganbotham took the mound for Buford.

Higganbotham threw five hitless innings of relief to get the win, striking out 12 and walking four.

Powell took the loss for the Indians, while Bryson Fowler and Zach Boyd each pitched for Stephens County.

The Indians finish the regular season with a 14-10 overall record and a 9-7 region record.

That region record ties them with North Oconee for fourth place, but it is believed that North Oconee has the tiebreaker and will advance over the Indians to the playoffs.

As for Buford, they are the region champs and will advance to the state playoffs to face a team from Region 7-AAAA.