Sports saturate Super Tuesday

If high school sports fans in Columbia County couldn't find an athletic event Tuesday to suite their taste, they just weren't trying hard enough.

The perfect spring day featured the busiest prep slate of the entire school year.

The month of March is slammed with local sports events, but Tuesday was a smorgasbord. All six Columbia County high schools had varsity squads in action, and when counting girls and boys competitions separately, the number of contests was staggering.

Believe it or not, county teams participated in 31 athletic events.

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"It's a buffet of sports," Greenbrier High School baseball coach Ed Williams said. "Take your choice - track, golf, soccer, tennis, baseball. It's good for the fans and good for the county."

Williams and the Wolfpack tangled with Evans High School on Tuesday, and while the Greenbrier coach was focused on the diamond, he also was awed by the profusion of prep sports featuring Columbia County schools.

"When you have that many kids involved in athletics, something's right," he said.

For the most part, Columbia County's teams did things right Tuesday, especially on the pitch, where county soccer squads went 7-0-1.

At Panther Stadium, the loudspeakers echoed throughout the area around Lakeside High School, as the announcer yelled, "Goal, Lakeside!" He might have needed some throat lozenges after the matches, as the Lady Panthers posted a 7-0 win over Thomson, and the Lakeside boys notched an 8-0 victory in the nightcap.

Earlier in the day, the Augusta Christian Schools baseball team blanked region rival Augusta Prep 15-0, as AC pitcher Adam McKinney tossed a no-hitter.

But the game that drew the most attention took place at Evans. The bleachers were packed for the baseball battle between Evans and Greenbrier, and the spectators got their money's worth.

Greenbrier held a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth, but the Knights rallied to tie it up, and eventually won 8-7 when Brad Freeman slid across the plate in the eighth.

"Whenever Evans and Greenbrier get together, the kids battle each other, and it's always a good ball game," Evans coach Ricky Beale said. "It's always fun because there's people in the stands hooting and hollering for both sides. The players really enjoy it."