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Sports

Providence Outlasts George Walton

Stars advance to the Class A quarterfinals with 15-10 win.

Providence Christian baseball coach Adam Cantrell might have had a flashback when his Stars took a 5-0 lead over George Walton Academy Thursday in the deciding game of their best-of-three playoff series. In 2009, Providence split two games with Landmark Christian and led 5-0 in the third game only to lose. History didn't repeat this time. Providence pounded out 18 hits and outlasted George Walton to win 15-10 and advance to next week's Class A quarterfinals to play King's Ridge, a team the Stars beat twice during the regular season. Providence jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the top of the first inning as Tyler Brown led off with a double, Austin Loyd singled and Christin Stewart singled to score the first run off George Walton starter Trey Lang. Austin Smith singled in a run and Nick Stidham reached on an error by the right-fielder. Stephen Slaughter drove in a run with a groundout and another run scored on an error. Josh Carter singled in a run for the fifth run of the inning. Providence went up 7-0 in the second as Stewart led off with a single and Smith cracked a two-run home run. But the Bulldogs from Monroe never quit. They scored one in the second inning and six more in the third to tie the game at 7-7. Providence went up 8-7 in the fourth but George Walton went ahead 9-8 when Hunter Rice hit a two-run home run off Slaughter, who was pitching in relief of Patrick Smith. But Slaughter (4-3) was credited with the win when his team scored three in the sixth and four in the seventh, highlighted by his own home run that helped his cause. Josh Carter pitched the final two innings to get his third save of the year. "We have a bunch of good hitting kids," Cantrell said. "All of them work real hard and all of them are good in certain areas and we have some weaknesses but as long as the other team doesn't know our weaknesses we have a pretty good opportunity." Providence will play Kings Ridge on Tuesday in a doubleheader at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

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