Lilburn Baseball Teams Readying for Stretch Run

Lilburn's high school baseball teams Parkview, Providence Christian and Berkmar began this week on streaks -- the Panthers and Stars on winning ones and the Patriots on a losing one.

Parkview hosts Dacula today having won 10 straight, after an uncharacteristic 3-5 start. The Panthers have been so dominant on their streak that they shut out four opponents, had consecutive wins against Archer (11-0) and Central Gwinnett (13-0) truncated to five innings, and even eked out a 6-5 win in eight innings against South Gwinnett on Friday.

The Panthers (13-5, 8-0) enter today's 5:55 p.m. game against the Falcons looking to remain the only unbeaten team in Region 8-AAAAA and on course toward a second consecutive region championship and 15th overall.

The Panthers have beaten opponents 8-4 on average on the strength of several players among the Gwinnett County's statistical leaders. Josh Hart comes in as its fourth-leading hitter as with a .561 average as of last week. Jarrett Freeland also has provided excitement with the RBI single that edged South.

The Panthers enter their second round of region games within striking distance of their previous-longest 13-game streak in 2006, the season they reached the second round of the state playoffs against Kell.

“As far as I’m concerned," Panthers coach Chan Brown reportedly told the Gwinnett Daily Post on Friday, "everybody is 0-0 starting (today)."

Providence (12-6, 8-0) enters Tuesday's 5 p.m. Region 5-A game against visiting Holy Innocents' having won eight in a row, including a pair Saturday against Fellowship Christian (14-9) and Greater Atlanta Christian (14-3). Patrick Smith sparked the Stars by batting 3-for-3 with a home run and two RBI against GAC, in addition to pitching the win. Likewise, Steven Slaughter hit 3-for-3 against GAC, after hurling the victory against Fellowship.

Christin Stewart, who homered in both games Saturday, leads the county with 11 and is second to Hebron Christian's Jordan Hillyer with 32 RBI. Austin Lloyd's three runs scored against Fellowship kept him among the county's top three in that category, as Providence attempts to remain its region's only unbeaten team.

Stars coach Adam Cantrell is pleased with his team's hitting during its streak, but slightly less its pitching and defense.

"We're still not playing our best, still struggling some times finding the strike zone and stopping other teams," he said. "We are swinging our bats really well, though. We need to keep swinging it the way we're swinging it, but we can't be giving teams extra outs."

Berkmar (4-13, 1-7) looks to halt its seven-game losing skid in today's 5:45 Region 8-AAAAA game at Archer, as well as score for the first time in four games. The Patriots were shut out by Dacula (11-0), Parkview (12-0) and Grayson (11-0) the last three times out, though E.J. Cheatham's 12 steals was third in the county last week.