One more win stands between the Tigers and a trip to the Final Four of the GHSA Division A baseball playoffs. 

The King's Ridge (KR) Tigers just don't seem to know when they are supposed to lose. So they just keep winning baseball games.

A dramatic walk-off single by Jason McCoy in the bottom of the seventh inning drove home Patrick McCure -- who opened the frame by scorching a double to the gap in left center -- with the game winner, propelling the Tigers to an 8-7 victory in the second game of a doubleheader with the heavily favored Providence Christian Academy (PCA) Stars. It was the second walk-off win for the Cinderella Tigers in their last four playoff games. 

The "M & M" boys one-two punch forced a deciding game in their best of three series with PCA, scheduled today at 5:00 p.m. in Lilburn. The winner goes on the semi-finals. The loser goes home, and for many, to spring football practice. It's do or die. 

"I got a fastball out over the plate," McClure said, in describing his lead-off two-bagger that hit the base of the fence, off losing pitcher Josh Carter. McCoy, expected to sacrifice McClure to third, instead swung away and drilled Carter's next pitch through the hole, and the celebration was on. McCoy said Tiger's head coach Jason Couch asked him if he wanted to bunt or swing away. "I told coach I'd rather hit away," McCoy said. Ballgame. 

McCoy's game winner was even more significant, as it preserved a gutsy seven inning complete game pitching performance by Luke McCracken, who picked up the win. McCracken was dominate through six innings, locating his fastball and keeping the otherwise heavy hitting Stars at bay with an array of nasty breaking balls he was throwing for strikes. McCracken took a 7-3 lead into the top of the seventh, only to see it evaporate with one bad pitch -- a flat fastball that PCA's Christin Stewart turned on for a 400+ foot gland slam over the center field fence that landed somewhere north of the next county. The dinger tied the score at 7-7. It was Stewart's second grand slam and third homer of the day, and his team leading 25th of the season. Stewart had 13 RBI's in a 7 for 10 day. 

Couch said he thought about walking Stewart, but decided not to put the go-ahead runner on base. As for taking out McCracken, Couch says he never wavered. "It was Luke's game to win or lose," Couch explained. "We rode his back for six innings and I felt he still had enough left in his tank to finish it out." McCracken [pictured below] rewarded Couch's confidence by retiring the next two PCA hitters to set his team up for their dramatic win. 

The Tigers got on the board first, pushing across a run in the first on an RBI single by McCracken. But the Stars answered with a four-bagger by Steven Slaugher, knotting the game at one in the second inning, and then took a 3-1 lead in the third, courtesy of a costly error by KR. The Tigers tied it at 3-3 in their half of the third on a lead-off homer by John Jarrard [pictured below] and a sac fly by McClure. 

After cobbling together a few singles to grab a 4-3 advantage in the fifth, KR seemingly iced the game with a three-spot in the bottom of the sixth, with the help of an RBI single by Jarrard and a towering two-run "Dr. Longball" off the bat of Devon Schmitt, who drilled a hanging slider by Carter over the 365-foot mark in left center, for a 7-3 Tiger lead. 

FIRST GAME LIKE FOOTBALL

With gusting winds and the temperature hovering in the low 50's, the first game of the twin-bill was more like a football game in November. So was the final score. PCA lit up eight KR pitchers like a cheap pin-ball machine enroute to a 27-18 win. After three head-to-head contests, the Stars had pounded KR pitching for an astonishing 47 runs, an average of nearly 16 runs per game. PCA knocked out Tigers game one starter McClure after just two thirds of an inning. After booming back-to-back-to-back homers off McCracken in the second and putting up a 10-spot to take a 15-4 lead after two, the game looked like it was headed to the mercy rule. 

But the Tigers, who simply play with no fear whatsoever, roared back with 14 runs in the next three innings, and actually took a seemingly impossible 18-17 lead into the bottom of the fifth. The lead could have been bigger had it not been for a costly baserunner mistake by Freshman pinch-runner Josh Carter in the fourth, who was tagged out at home attempting to score from second on a two-eight single by McCoy, failing to slide. Carter said he mis-judged the throw home. 

From there, the wheels came off Tiger pitching again, as the Stars scored 10 unanswered runs in the next two frames to thwart the KR comeback and win the game handily. 

Their big offensive explosion may have led their squad to over-confidence, as some PCA players started asking the media who was winning the other bracket, anxious to find out who their next opponent would be. It took awhile, but this reporter told them who it would be after the second game of the doubleheader concluded: The King's Ridge Tigers. It's called game three.

"Our kids don't know how to let up," Couch said. Asked if he was surprised about the game one attempted comeback, Couch answered cooly: "I would have been more surprised if we hadn't come back." 

The first year coach said he plans to start Junior Jeff Sneed today. 

Sneed scattered 14 hits to pick up the game three win over Mt. Paran last week. 

Assistant coach Paul Byrd acknowledged Sneed doesn't have overwhelming stuff, and says his team doesn't really have a traditional number one starter. "We pitch our staff by committee, and we try to go with the hot hand," Byrd said. "What our pitching staff may lack in [firepower] we make up in heart, character and hustle. We'll go with the guy that's on and we'll play the hand we're dealt."