Baseball playoff draws: Blessed Trinity-Cartersville is first-round jewel

A couple of months ago, Blessed Trinity and Cartersville were so hot that they were ranked in the top 20 of MaxPreps’ national baseball rankings.

Now, these two Georgia state powers are meeting in the first round of the state playoffs, which start Friday. (See playoff pairings below, with each team's seed and state ranking.)

The Blessed Trinity-Cartersville is the best of several strong matchups. Others include No. 4 Harrison at No. 3 Winder-Barrow in AAAAAA, No. 5 Westminster (a defending champion) at No. 6 Greater Atlanta Christian in AAA and No. 1 North Hall at No. 7 Pace Academy in AAA.

Blessed Trinity is ranked No. 1 in Georgia’s Class AAAA and seeded No. 1 out of Region 7. The Titans have won state titles in 2006, 2014 and 2015 and was a state runner-up in 2016.

Cartersville - which has won 19 straight first-round series and claimed six state titles since 2001 - was the fourth-place finisher out of Region 5. There’s no shame in that. The other Region 5 qualifiers are third-ranked Troup (20-10, 10-2), seventh-ranked LaGrange (19-11, 9-3) and fifth-ranked Cedartown (02-5, 8-4).

Cartersville (22-8, 8-4) is still ranked No. 2 in the Score Atlanta/AJC rankings because of several wins over ranked teams outside of AAAA. Cartersville has beaten No. 1 Walton and No. 3 Mill Creek of AAAAAAA, among others. Cartersville has lost to Troup 2-1 and 1-0.

Cartersville has typical star power. Catcher/pitcher Anthony Seigler and shortstop Devin Warner are committed to Auburn, and J.P. Martin, a catcher/first baseman, is going to Alabama.

But Blessed Trinity in not what Cartersville was hoping for this early. The Titans (27-3) have won 15 straight games and are getting huge seasons from Colin Davis (.411-10-43) and pitchers Patrick McNamara (8-0, 0.34), Cole McNamee (8-0, 0.71) and Peyton Glavine (7-1, 1.04). Glavine is committed to Auburn and will face some future teammates.

MaxPreps’ computer rankings have Blessed Trinity No. 1 and Cartersville No. 9 in all classifications, No. 1 and No. 2 in AAAA.

Friday’s doubleheader will begin at 4:30 at Blessed Trinity. The best-of-three series would conclude Saturday if necessary.

AAAAAAA

R8 #3 South Gwinnett at R6 #2 Mill Creek (No. 3)

R2 #4 Westlake at R4 #1 Walton (No. 1)

R1 #3 Lowndes at R3 #2 North Paulding

R7 #4 Lakeside-DeKalb at R5 #1 Lambert (No. 10)

R6 #3 Mountain View at R8 #2 Archer (No. 9)

R4 #4 Etowah at R2 #1 East Coweta (No. 8)

R3 #3 North Cobb at R1 #2 Camden County

R5 #4 Milton at R7 #1 Brookwood (No. 5)

R4 #3 Woodstock at R2 #2 Wheeler

R6 #4 Peachtree Ridge at R8 #1 Grayson (No. 7)

R5 #3 Forsyth Central at R7 #2 Parkview (No. 4)

R3 #4 McEachern at R1 #1 Colquitt County

R2 #3 Newnan at R4 #2 Lassiter (No. 6)

R8 #4 Rockdale County at R6 #1 North Gwinnett (No. 2)

R7 #3 Norcross at R5 #2 West Forsyth

R1 #4 TBA at R3 #1 Hillgrove

AAAAAA

R8 #3 Dacula at R6 #2 River Ridge

R2 #4 Brunswick at R4 #1 Tucker

R1 #3 Valdosta at R3 #2 Lakeside-Evans

R7 #4 Cambridge at R5 #1 Alexander (No. 9)

R6 #3 Dalton (No. 5) at R8 #2 Gainesville (No. 7)

R4 #4 Mount Zion at R2 #1 Glynn Academy

R3 #3 Heritage-Conyers at R1 #2 Houston County

R5 #4 Creekside at R7 #1 Pope (No. 1)

R4 #3 Stephenson at R2 #2 Richmond Hill

R6 #4 Harrison (No. 4) at R8 #1 Winder-Barrow (No. 3)

R5 #3 Northgate at R7 #2 Northview (No. 6)

R3 #4 Evans at R1 #1 Lee County (No. 8)

R2 #3 Effingham County at R4 #2 Mundy's Mill

R8 #4 Lanier at R6 #1 Allatoona (No. 2)

R7 #3 Johns Creek at R5 #2 South Paulding

R1 #4 Coffee at R3 #1 Greenbrier (No. 10)

AAAAA

R8 #3 Flowery Branch at R6 #2 Riverwood

R2 #4 Statesboro at R4 #1 Locust Grove (No. 3)

R1 #3 Thomas County Central at R3 #2 McIntosh

R7 #4 Villa Rica at R5 #1 Arabia Mountain

R6 #3 North Springs at R8 #2 Buford (No. 6)

R4 #4 Jones County (No. 9) at R2 #1 Wayne County

R3 #3 Griffin (No. 8) at R1 #2 Harris County (No. 5)

R5 #4 Southwest DeKalb at R7 #1 Carrollton (No. 4)

R4 #3 Ola at R2 #2 South Effingham

R6 #4 Lithia Springs at R8 #1 Loganville (No. 7)

R5 #3 Columbia at R7 #2 East Paulding

R3 #4 Whitewater at R1 #1 Veterans (No. 2)

R2 #3 Ware County at R4 #2 Union Grove

R8 #4 Walnut Grove at R6 #1 Decatur

R7 #3 Kell (No. 10) at R5 #2 Chamblee

R1 #4 Bainbridge at R3 #1 Starr's Mill (No. 1)

AAAA

R8 #3 Jefferson at R6 #2 Heritage-Ringgold (No. 9)

R2 #4 Mary Persons at R4 #1 Woodward Academy (No. 4)

R1 #3 Hardaway at R3 #2 Burke County

R7 #4 West Hall at R5 #1 Troup (No. 3)

R6 #3 Pickens at R8 #2 Oconee County

R4 #4 Druid Hills at R2 #1 West Laurens

R3 #3 Thomson at R1 #2 Columbus

R5 #4 Cartersville (No. 2) at R7 #1 Blessed Trinity (No. 1)

R4 #3 Eastside at R2 #2 Spalding

R6 #4 Gilmer at R8 #1 Madison County (No. 10)

R5 #3 Cedartown (No. 5) at R7 #2 Marist

R3 #4 Baldwin at R1 #1 Cairo (No. 8)

R2 #3 Perry at R4 #2 Leulla

R8 #4 Stephens County at R6 #1 Northwest Whitfield (No. 6)

R7 #3 Chestatee at R5 #2 LaGrange (No. 7)

R1 #4 Northside-Columbus at R3 #1 Cross Creek

AAA

R8 #3 Franklin County (No. 8) at R6 #2 Coahulla Creek

R2 #4 Tattnall County at R4 #1 Pike County

R1 #3 Crisp County at R3 #2 Jenkins

R7 #4 Fannin County at R5 #1 Redan (No. 4)

R6 #3 North Murray (No. 9) at R8 #2 Hart County

R4 #4 Rutland at R2 #1 Pierce County (No. 2)

R3 #3 Islands at R1 #2 Cook

R5 #4 Westminster (No. 5) at R7 #1 Greater Atlanta Christian (No. 6)

R4 #3 Peach County at R2 #2 Brantley County

R6 #4 Calhoun at R8 #1 Morgan County

R5 #3 Lovett (No. 10) at R7 #2 Dawson County

R3 #4 Groves at R1 #1 Worth County

R2 #3 Appling County at R4 #2 Jackson

R8 #4 Jackson County at R6 #1 Ringgold (No. 3)

R7 #3 North Hall (No. 1) at R5 #2 Pace Academy (No. 7)

R1 #4 Monroe at R3 #1 Southeast Bulloch

AA

R8 #3 Banks County at R6 #2 Hapeville Charter

R2 #4 Toombs County at R4 #1 Laney

R1 #3 Fitzgerald at R3 #2 Dodge County

R7 #4 Chattooga at R5 #1 Callaway (No. 2)

R6 #3 BEST Academy at R8 #2 Social Circle

R4 #4 Screven County at R2 #1 Jeff Davis (No. 3)

R3 #3 Washington County at R1 #2 Berrien

R5 #4 Jordan at R7 #1 Rockmart (No. 8)

R4 #3 Westside-Augusta at R2 #2 Benedictine (No. 5)

R6 #4 Washington at R8 #1 Elbert County (No. 1)

R5 #3 Lamar County at R7 #2 Dade County

R3 #4 East Laurens at R1 #1 Thomasville (No. 10)

R2 #3 Bacon County (No. 7) at R4 #2 Harlem (No. 6)

R8 #4 Rabun County at R6 #1 South Atlanta

R7 #3 Pepperell at R5 #2 Heard County (No. 4)

R1 #4 Early County at R3 #1 Bleckley County (No. 9)