Houston County loses coin flip, to travel for Class AAAAA semifinal

A few Houston County baseball coaches celebrated Tuesday night’s wild GHSA Class AAAAA doubleheader sweep over Columbus by driving to Gainesville to see who the next opponent would be.

Gainesville had a good day. The Red Elephants advanced with a 12-8 win over Dalton, and then they won the coin flip to determine the location of Monday’s semifinal.

For the second year in a row, Gainesville will host a Region 2-AAAAA team when Houston County makes the trip. The first game of the doubleheader is at 4 p.m.

Last year, Gainesville topped visiting Jones County 4-3 and 5-4. The Red Elephants then lost in three games to Region 2 champ Greenbrier, 6-2, 3-7, 5-2.

Two years ago, Houston County was a second seed and had to go to Gainesville, which had won Region 8, for a semifinal. The Bears won 6-2, 7-13 and 7-4, and then beat Whitewater 8-7, 6-8 and 8-6 for the state championship.

Gainesville is 28-5 and Houston County is 25-7.

Michael A. Lough

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Houston County loses coin flip, to travel for Class AAAAA semifinal."