Two of the region’s best high school baseball programs are going toe to toe with some serious postseason hardware on the line, as Auburn High will travel to Central-Phenix City for a best-of-three series that will send the winner to Montgomery for a Class 7A State Championship appearance.
Starting at 4:30 p.m. CST Wednesday, the Tigers will look to replicate some region-play success at Darnell Nelson Field, after beating the winningest team in Class 7A on its home turf.
Here’s a rundown of what’s to come between the Tigers and Red Devils.
Series Schedule
- Game 1: 4:30 p.m. CST May 8 at Darnell Nelson Field in Phenix City
- Game 2: 7 p.m. CST May 8 at Darnell Nelson Field in Phenix City
- Game 3 (if necessary): 4:30 p.m. CST May 8 at Darnell Nelson Field in Phenix City
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A look at Auburn High
Auburn High head coach Matt Cimo, who’s in his 32nd and final season as the program’s head coach, has seen his team become as cohesive as they’ve been all season down the stretch.
“They've really grown in unselfishness,” Cimo said. “They got better at being like, 'Hey, this is our team, and I got to give something up for us to win,' and once it became unselfish, the team really started to click.”
A team that’s headlined by a pair of future Southeastern Conference players in Mississippi State commit Henry Allen and Auburn commit Tanner Waldrop has gone 8-2 in its past 10 games, and what Cimo has seen is a 12-man senior class come into form.
“Seth Payne, he came on as a shortstop,” Cimo said. “He's one of the best shortstops we've had. We didn't know where he was going to play at the beginning. He’s just come into his own and done really well. Peyton Etheredge on the hill has done really well. Tanner Waldrop and Henry Allen, we knew what they were going to do. Brendan Fox is really good, Jackson Mills — all these seniors, they've come up.”
A look at Central-Phenix City
At one point the top-ranked team in the country, according to Baseball America, the Central Phenix-City Red Devils have posted their best record yet under head coach AJ Kehoe, losing just three times this year.
“They're very competitive,” Kehoe said of this year’s squad. “They really do a great job of adding value to one another, and they bring tremendous energy and really celebrate all the little things that we do well. There's some real, true synergy amongst them. They just play extremely well together.”
A trio of seniors from Central’s 2022 state championship team — Landon Beaver, Hunter Wippert and Cason Page — have been integral to player leadership in Kehoe’s eyes. But that doesn’t mean the season hasn’t been without its pleasant surprises, one of the biggest of which is sophomore Cam Norton.
The ace of Central’s staff, Norton holds an undefeated record and carried a 1.05 ERA when the Red Devils were ranked the nation’s best.
“It's not a real surprise to me, personally,” Kehoe said of Norton. “But being 10-0 and pitching the way he has pitched this year, his competitiveness, his grittiness I think, has really rubbed off on our team.”