North Atlanta Baseball Looks for Strong Finish

s baseball team hopes for more consistency as it heads into the main course of Region 5-AAA play.

Coach Gip Johnston, who in his regular job is executive director of the Conservancy, said "we're young, with 10th and 11th graders and a couple of seniors. They're a bunch of good athletes."

The Warriors won the APS tournament, but has hit a few bumps during the regular season. It heads into the stretch run of the year with a 7-8 record — 2-1 in region play. "When we play good, we usually do well, but when we make errors and walk people, we tend to struggle," Johnston said.

With nine games left, all within the region, the club is looking to finish strong and make the playoffs. The Warriors have five straight home games, including three this week, all beginning at 5:30 p.m. They play St. Pius Monday, Towers Wednesday and Stone Mountain Friday. They play arch-rival Riverwood Monday, March 28, and Arabia Mountain March 30.

A coach at Buckhead Baseball for 20 years, Johnston said that no matter how this season goes, the future is bright for North Atlanta baseball. "I want to build a good program from the ground up," he said. The junior varsity team is undefeated, and Sutton Middle School has a strong group of players that he expects will come to North Atlanta.

Johnston said a major step forward will be the launch this year of a summer team sponsored by Buckhead American Legion Post 140 that he'll also coach. "We're going to play tournaments around the city and have the guys continue to play together," he said.

The Legion team will be a big boost for the North Atlanta program he said. "You can't pick up a bat in February and put it down in May and hope to get good," he said. "The guys can play here and receive just as good coaching as they would at East Cobb Baseball."

North Atlanta plays on one of the smallest fields in the metro area, but high fences around the outfield keep games from being home-run slugfests.

"The field is fine," Johnston said. "The ball hits the fence, and it's a single."