Baseball: Redan Sweeps Marist in State Championship

The Redan Raiders made their mark on high school baseball not only as a school, but for the DeKalb County School District and the Atlanta Metro area with their Class AAAA state championship series sweep of the Marist War Eagles at Marist on Monday.

The 11-0 and 4-3 wins to sweep the best-of-three title series gave a storied baseball program its first ever baseball state title, the 10th for DeKalb County Schools and the first ever for a team made up completely of African-Americans from metro Atlanta to win a Georgia High School Association baseball state title.

The Raiders make it look to be too easy in the opening game as junior lefty Corderius Dorsey pitched a complete game, two-hit, shutout in the 11-0 victory to take the series lead 1-0. Dorsey worked out of a couple of jams early on then took advantage of an early 2-0 lead. A solo homer by Georgia signee Wesley Jones in the first inning made it 1-0 then Dorsey helped his own cause with a run scoring single in the top of the second.

Fifteen of the final 16 War Eagle batters to face Dorsey failed to reach base while the Raiders stepped on the gas in the sixth and seventh inning to blow the game open. Dorsey, who finished 5-0 in the state playoffs (half the Raiders’ 10 wins on the way to the title) aided his own cause with a chopper over the infield with runners on second and third to push the lead to 4-0 heading into the final inning. Miles Fore capped a seven-run outburst in the top of the seventh with a two-run homer to deep center for the final of 11-0.

Trega Williams, the hero in a game one semifinal win over Troup County, was 2-4 at the plate with two doubles and 2 RBI to lead the Raiders followed by Dorsey (2-4, 3 RBI), James Nelson (2-5; 1 RBI), Brandon Baker (2-5; 2 RS), Miles Fore (2-4; 2 RS; 2 RBI; 1 HR) and Kendrick Elder (2-4; 1 RBI).

The history setting Game 2 victory did not come as easy, but the Raiders jumped out to a 4-1 lead and held on for the title clinching 4-3 win.

Winning pitcher Brandon Baker, a Missouri signee, got things going in the bottom of the first inning as his run scoring single put the Raiders on the board first again and a Marist throwing error with the bases loaded allowed the lead to jump to 3-0 after one complete.

Marist got to Baker for a run in the top of the second only to have Jones answer with a RBI double in the bottom of the inning to keep the margin at three with the Raiders up 4-1. Baker allowed a run in the fifth and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth to hold the slim 4-3 lead.

Marist got a runner on with a walk against reliever Darian Osby in the seventh, but he responded with a pair of strikeouts to record the save and send the team celebrating with sidelined Coach Marvin Pruitt, DeKalb’s winningest coach with over 400 wins in his career and a Georgia Dugout Hall of Fame member.

Pruitt’s medical condition kept him watching from a distance and away from the ball field completely during most of the season, but couldn’t keep him away during the playoffs as he showed up to support his squad. Assistants Chris Hardnett and Harry Sapp worked to keep the players focused.

Joseph Graves (2-2; 1 RS) and James Nelson (2-3; 1 RS) led the Redan offense that ended with nine hits. Baker scattered eight hits and four walks over six innings in picking up his fourth win of the playoff season.

The state title was the first for DeKalb County Schools since Dunwoody’s 2007 sweep of Columbus in the Class AAA state championship.

Redan’s 10-1 record in the playoffs improved its overall in the state playoffs record to 48-41 and atop the DeKalb standings. The Raiders lead second place Dunwoody (37-39) and third place Tucker (32-38) as the only DeKalb teams with more than 30 playoff victories.

The Raiders also set a new school record for wins with the 30-7 mark this season breaking the old mark of 26-7 set in 1982 and repeated in 1988. The playoff tradition of the Raiders with the likes for former and current major leaguers such as 16 year MLB player Wally Joyner and current players such as All-Star Brandon Phillips (1999) of the Cincinnati Reds, Chris Nelson (2003) of the New York Yankees and Dominic Brown (2006) with Philadelphia had advanced to the semifinals in 2003 and again 2010, but finally broke through for that coveted state championship against 12-time champion Marist.

Semifinals
Trega Williams and Darian Osby played key roles in sending the Redan Raiders into their first state championship appearance as Redan won two of three games to take a best-of-three semifinal series from Troup County at Redan. Williams rallied the Raiders to a 9-8 victory in Game 1 as he hit a walk-off, three-run homer to give Redan a 1-0 lead in the series.

Troup held off another Raider rally in the top of the seventh in the second game to even the series at one game apiece with a 4-3 win in the nightcap of the doubleheader. Troup jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third game, but the resilient Raiders rallied for a 3-2 victory as regular reliever Darian Osby went the distance despite giving up two first inning runs.

Osby settled in and pitched six scoreless innings to finish the game as the Raiders rallied. Bakari Gayle drove in the go-ahead run for the 3-2 lead in the sixth. Troup threatened in the seventh but Osby rose to the occasion in the final inning as he had done most of the season in a relief role and a final fly ball out propelled the Raiders into the championship round.

Road to the Class AAAA Championship
Round 1
Defeated Heritage-Catoosa (16-12), 8-4, 12-2, sweep 2-0
Round 2
Defeated No. 2 Columbus (20-11), 5-4, 9-4, sweep 2-0
Round 3
Defeated Locust Grove (19-12), 11-1, 13-3, sweep 2-0
Semifinals
Defeated Troup Co. (22-13), 9-8, 3-4. 3-2 wins 2-1
Championship
Defeated Marist (27-9), 11-0, 4-3, sweep 2-0

See also:

Redan Wins State Championship Baseball Title

Mark Brock is the Information Officer/Statistician/Web Manager for DeKalb County Schools Athletics