Eight area teams make Class A baseball playoffs

Three teams from Middle Georgia will open the Class A baseball playoffs at home.

Tattnall Square in private schools and Treutlen in public schools are both seeded fourth. Taylor County is eighth.

Tattnall Square hosts Mt. Paran, which is 18-8. FPD travels to third-seed George Walton.

Mount de Sales was the final team in the private school bracket and gets top seed Savannah Christian.

Treutlen welcomes Miller County in the first round on the public school side, while Commerce is at Taylor County.

Telfair County travels to ECI and Johnson County is at Irwin County.

GMC had to sweat out the appeals, and the Bulldogs are in at No. 16, heading to Schley County.

The race to qualify for the Class A playoffs intensified with the latest Class A baseball rankings on Tuesday, a day before pairings were announced.

Tattnall Square was in safely at No. 5 in the private school rankings, while No. 3 Treutlen and No. 7 Taylor County had locked down postseason slots. No. 11 Telfair County and No. 12 Johnson County were pretty much in.

No. 14 FPD and No. 16 Mount de Sales on the private school side and No. 16 GMC and No. 18 Hawksinsville on the public school side were close to or on the bubble.

After accounting for region champions and appeals, Telfair County moved up one to 10 over Clinch County. ECI's power rating changed, but its ranking remained No. 6.

The placement of region champions is why Tattnall was No. 5 but is seeded No. 4. In Region 8, No. 2 Hebron Christian was runner-up to No. 4 George Walton, so Hebron Christian dropped to the sixth seed behind region champs.

Hawkinsville was 18th among public schools with an 8.91 rating, just behind Claxton's 8.98 and GMC's 9.18.

Stratford was No 21 in the private rankings. Wheeler County, Wilkinson County, Dooly County, Montgomery County and Wilcox County were between 27th and 36th.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Eight area teams make Class A baseball playoffs."