Bulloch Academy swept The Weber School on Thursday in Atlanta in the opening round of the GISA Class AAA baseball playoffs.
    “Our guys played loose,” BA head coach Dennis Dove said. “They competed all day long. We played good defensively and had some big hits.”
    The Gators (11-9) beat the Rams 2-0 in the first game and 12-11 in eight innings in the nightcap to take the best-of-three series. With the win, Bulloch advances to next week’s quarterfinals and will face the winner of the Mount de Sales-Tiftarea Academy playoff series. The Cavaliers and the Panthers square off this weekend in Macon.
    Bulloch backed into the playoffs as a fourth seed with a 7-2 win over region foe Augusta Prep on April 24. Since then, according to Dove, he has seen a different bunch of Gators.
    “In the past four games, this has been a totally different team,” he said. “They have been coming ready to play and ready to compete and get after it. Early in the season, they were pressing and trying to do too much. Now, they are more relaxed and seem to be having more fun. I’ve got a feeling that they want it more, too.”
    In Game 1, Jarret Humphries hurled a complete-game shutout. He struck out seven batters, walked one and allowed just four hits.
    “Jarret set the tone of the day in the first game,” Dove said.   
    The tense contest remained scoreless until the top of the sixth when Bulloch scored the only two runs of the game.
    Chris Young stroked a double into the left-field gap. Humphries blasted a hot shot to short, which was misplayed by the Weber fielder. The ball rolled to the fence, allowing Young to score and letting Humphries go to second. Loy Waters ripped a base hit to score Young.
    In the bottom of the seventh, Weber opened the inning with one of its four base hits. But the next batter hit into a 4-6-3 double play (Bailey Smith to Smith Reeves to Clayton Rogers) for two outs. Center fielder Harrison Averitt secured the final out on a pop fly.
    Game 2 was a different story as the teams combined for 23 runs.
    BA had a tight 5-4 advantage after four innings. Humphries had a solo home run in the third. Starting pitcher Joshua Bishop hurled three innings and reliever Hunter Jacobs went one.
    In the bottom of the fifth, the Gators plated five runs to take a 10-4 lead. In the stanza, the Gators drew four walks and had a batter hit by a pitch. Waters blasted a double to right-center to clear the bases.
    But the Rams scratched out seven runs in the top of the sixth for an 11-10 advantage.
    “They came out in desperation mode and swung the bat,” Dove said. “We made a couple of errors that didn’t help matters.”
    Bulloch tied the game in the bottom of the sixth.
    Gator reliever Reeves, who had come on in the fifth, went back to work in the seventh and held the Rams scoreless.
    “After that one bad inning, he was fine,” Dove said. “I was really proud of the way he was able to bounce back. “He could have folded and given up. But he acted like nothing had happened. That’s huge for a freshman.”
    Bulloch had the opportunity for the win in the seventh, loading the bases with one out. But the Rams pitching staff struck out the next two Gators batters to end the threat.
    After Reeves again held Weber scoreless in the eighth, the Gators finally capitalized.
    With two outs, Averitt was hit by a pitch. Young got a base hit and Averitt, the state champion in the 400-meter dash, motored to third. Rogers lined a shot over second base to drive in Averitt for the winning run.