THOMASVILLE – Thomas County Central’s baseball team scored a pair of important Region 1-6A victories Friday night in a doubleheader sweep of Northside-Warner Robins.

The Yellow Jackets smashed the Eagles 11-0 and 11-1. Central finished its region schedule at 7-8 and will open the state playoffs this upcoming weekend as a No. 4 seed.

Central heads into Tuesday’s non-region game with Lowndes on a six-game winning streak. It followed an eight-game skid, though five of those defeats came by three runs or less.

“We’ve lost nine games on the year that were three runs or less. That’s a bounce of the ball here or there, just one little thing going your way. That’s baseball,” Central Coach Ryan Strickland said.

“Even the Lee County series, we played well. We’ve got some hits to fall for us now and everything else. The boys have stayed relentless and kept plugging away and hadn’t given up. That’s the big thing. We want to be playing well at the right time and hopefully be playing the best ball when it matters.”

Griffin Taylor pitched 5 innings for the Yellow Jackets in Friday’s opener, allowing zero runs, two hits and four strikeouts. Central tallied 11 hits and 10 RBIs at the plate, led by Reid Harvey’s three hits, two RBIs and three runs, along with Reid Gainous’ two hits and three RBIs. Lee McCorkle also chipped in with a pair of RBIs.

A seven-run sixth inning propelled the Yellow Jackets to the blowout win in the nightcap. Taylor finished with two hits and four RBIs, while Hudson Rice chipped in three hits, two runs and an RBI.

Lawson Odom also tallied two hits, one run and one RBI. Central capitalized on nine Northside-WR errors.

Eli Taylor notched the win for the Yellow Jackets, allowing three hits, one run with eight strikeouts in five innings.

Central will open the state playoffs on Saturday, April 22 against the Region 2 champion.