Houston County ready for Final Four rematch FR24 News English

The Houston County Bears baseball team will face the Pope Greyhounds in the GHSA AAAAAA semifinal.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. – (41NBC/WMGT) – The Houston County Bears baseball team is no stranger to success. Since winning their first-ever state championship in 2014, the past ten seasons have seen the Bears break numerous records, win multiple state titles, and send several players to play at the NCAA Division 1 level. Since then, to commemorate their success, they have made t-shirts that read “Decade of Dominance.” GOOD. they certainly lived up to that name this season, as they reached the final four for a consecutive season, their third in four years.

Now, returning to this state championship game, the Bears find themselves facing a familiar opponent. The same team that HoCo beat to win the state title last season, the Pope Greyhounds, a team that has been to nine straight semifinals, according to Houston County head coach Matt Hopkins.

Coach Hopkins is proud of this team and knows they are exactly where they are supposed to be, but it hasn’t been easy getting here. “I honestly can’t even express it in words,” Hopkins said. “It’s been a tough year, just trying to really bring us together and I think the boys have done a great job of continuing our expectations of what the program is…these are our boys and they expect to do well and they did exactly what they wanted that… It’s so difficult to get to this point, and to be able to do it three of the last four years, it’s pretty special.

Being part of this team that has played together for years is something special for this group of young men. Junior shortstop Ethan Buffone is feeling good and is “really proud of this team.” Buffone also knows the Bears “have come a long way, faced a lot of adversity, lost a lot of players and faced tough teams. I think our team is built for state championships.

Will Allen, junior first baseman, is also proud, but according to the junior, it’s “what I expect from this program, because we’re just a hard-working program and we give everything we have on the ground. I love that we came together as a team, just built team chemistry and just came together to play baseball,” Allen said.

After beating Pope for the state title last season, Coach Hopkins said the team was “there too.” We have earned the right to be respected on our own and we don’t have to prove anything to anyone, we just have to show up and play Houston County baseball.

As good as this Pope baseball team is, the Bears have unmatched confidence heading into their final four games. “I think we should beat them to be honest,” Allen said. “If we continue to hit, throw, have confidence on the field and keep the energy in the dugout, I think that’s really important.”

“They are afraid of us,” Buffone said. “We’re going to come out hot and show them who we are. Same team as last year, same champion team. This is going to take a lot of focus, confidence and energy. I think if we just play our game, we’ll beat them.

“I’m just extremely proud of these kids,” Coach Hopkins said. “We had to call on a lot of guys, with injuries to the seniors and some injuries throughout the program, and different things. Just being a high school student, a teenager and people ask you, “Hey, are you going to repeat a grade?” or “hey, are you all going to be able to continue to be good?” and my boys were like, “Yeah, so-and-so,” and this other program was like, “We’re not going to be as good this year,” and everything else. I’m like, ‘You know, the problem is guys, it doesn’t matter what anyone says.’ I know it’s a little cliché to say this stuff, but make sure we do what we’re supposed to do, run our business and do things the Houston County way, and let our culture do the talking of itself and the results will be what we want. they should be, and we’re in exactly the position we wanted to be in at the start of the year.

Houston County travels to Cobb County in north Marietta to face the Pope Greyhounds in the semifinals on Saturday, May 11 with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.