ST. SIMONS — Frederica Academy swept its way into the GISA Class 3A state championship series on Friday, taking the best-of-3 semifinal series in two games with a 1-0 win in Game 1 and a 5-1 win in Game 2.

Game 1 was a pitcher’s duel between Frederica’s Trey Thompson and Tiftarea’s Dawson Patterson.

Thompson worked a perfect first inning and worked around a walk and an error in the second to keep the Panthers off the scoreboard. The third inning is where things got tight for Frederica.

After a flyout to lead off the inning, Colby Grant reached on an infield single and stole second base. Thompson struck out Grant Hall to get to two outs, but Carter Stewart followed with a single to right field.

Tiftarea coach Chance Benton initially held Grant at third on the play but when the relay through bounced past Frederica catcher Deke Jernigan and Thompson, who was backing up the through, Benton sent Grant home.

Thompson tracked down the ball and managed to beat Grant to the plate and tag him out to end the inning. The call on the close play didn’t set well with Benton, who spent a couple of minutes arguing his point with the home plate umpire.

While Thompson battled out of a jam, Patterson was cruising along, striking out five of the first nine batters he saw with just an error and a walk to blemish the scorebook.

His only mistake came with one out in the bottom of the third. Jernigan, Frederica’s leadoff man who struck out in his first at-bat, grooved a fastball from Patterson over the left-field fence for a solo home run and what turned out to be the only run in the game.

Tiftarea would have chances to answer, but Thompson managed to work out of every jam. Thompson walked a batter in the fourth with one out, but back-to-back fielder’s choices ended the threat.

Brandon Prudhomme started off the fifth inning with an infield single. After he was wiped out on a fielder’s choice by McRay Lentz, Grant laid down a sac bunt to get Lentz to second base.

Lentz was replaced after reaching second base by pinch-runner Adam McKinney, but Thompson picked off McKinney to end the inning.

Tiftarea’s defense stepped up in the bottom of the sixth to keep the score 1-0. With Lentz taking over for Patterson on the mound, he walked Nic Dixon to with one out. Harry Veal followed with a double down the left field line that went all the way to the corner.

Dixon tried to score all the way from first but a

See PANTHERS, page 2B

perfect relay beat him to the plate for the second out of the inning. Veal went to third on the throw, but he was picked off by Tiftarea catcher Casen Royal after he strayed a little too far off the base.

Casen also pumped up the Panthers’ comeback hopes in the top of the 7th with a two out single up the middle. That momentum was quickly erased when Patterson grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

In Game 2, Frederica, the visiting team on the scoreboard, struck first in the bottom of the first with Cameron Gardner doubling home a run in the top of the first to make it 1-0.

The Knights added another run in the top of the second inning with JT Whaley singling home Harry Veal after Veal singled and stole second base to make it 2-0.

Game 2 starter Eric McCall kept the Panthers in check for most of the game. The Panthers didn’t get their first hit until the fifth inning. Right after the hit, Jernigan caught Nate Fortson trying to steal second base to eliminate the threat.

Frederica extended the lead to 4-0 by pushing home a couple of runs in the fifth inning. A single and an error put runners on second and third. McCall followed with a sacrifice fly to score one run, and Henry Jamieson followed with a single to plate another run.

Tiftarea loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth and pushed across one run, but Thompson relieved McCall and managed to get out of the inning just giving up one run.

Frederica added an insurance run in the top of the seventh with McCall driving home a run with a single.

Thompson gave up a two-out single in the seventh, but closed out the game to push the Knights to the state championship series next week at Mercer University.