Richmond Hill won region title, broke records as pitcher/shortstop Leighton Finley led the way

RICHMOND HILL — In one of the ironies of sport, Richmond Hill’s most decorated player made the final out of the season when the Wildcats lost their Sweet 16 series to Lassiter two games to one in the GHSA Class 6A state baseball playoffs.

Leighton Finley’s lazy fly ball to left brought to an end one of the school’s best baseball seasons and the career of one of its all-time best players. The Wildcats (24-9) won the series opener 6-2 behind Finley’s five-hitter before losing 6-2 and 7-4.

The Georgia-bound Finley (13-0) set school records for most wins in a season, most in a career (18-2) and broke the single-season strikeout record with 104. The team’s 24 wins also were a school record as it won its third region championship (2013, 2016).

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The previous record for most wins in a career, incidentally, was held by Finley’s older brother Jackson (16-5), who currently plays at Georgia Tech. Jackson Finley holds the Wildcats career record for strikeouts with 191 while Leighton had 177. The statistics were compiled from information the school posted on MaxPreps and from boxes on Game Changer.

The single-season strikeout total broke Kevin Matthews’ mark of 94 set in 2011. Matthews was a first-round draft pick of the Texas Rangers that season.

No RHHS player has been drafted since, although former Wildcats hurler Brian Eichhorn was drafted by the Cleveland Guardians following his junior season at Georgia Southern. Eichhorn is currently with the Lynchburg (Virginia) Hillcats of the Class A Carolina League.

Finley said earlier in the season that in addition to team goals, his personal goals were to repeat as the Region 2-6A Player of the Year and to get drafted. The all-region team has not yet been selected. The MLB amateur draft will be held July 17-19.

One of Finley’s best performances of the season came when he pitched a 13-strikeout no-hitter against Class 7A power Woodstock, which is in the Final Four for the second straight year.

Finley faced the minimum 21 batters but couldn’t get credit for a perfect game as a batter reached on a missed third strike. However, first baseman Ty Goldrick snared the next hitter’s line drive for an inning-ending double play.

The Wildcats had two other wins to remember, too. They beat Ringgold 1-0 despite being no-hit and committed an unbelievable 13 errors at Ware County yet managed to pull out an 11-9 win with five runs in the seventh inning.

The Game 3 loss to Lassiter also marked the departure of fellow seniors Luke Boone, Evan Cowan, Ethan Fuller, Connor Ulm, Jalen Varnadoe, Ryan Weibold, Connor Truax and Ozzy Ilar along with head coach Chris Jenkins.

New head coach to hire

Boone has signed with Georgia State, and Cowan with Georgia College and State University. Jenkins, the school’s softball coach and in his first year at Richmond Hill, coached baseball on an interim basis when previous coach Scott Strickland resigned a month into the school year.

The school is in the process of interviewing candidates for the job and Jenkins said he was definitely not a candidate, although he coached baseball for several years at Jasper County.

“It’s family time now,” Jenkins said. “This was a great year. I hate it ended the way it did because I think if we had beaten Lassiter, we would have had a good chance of winning the state championship.

“The kids did a great job all year,” Jenkins said. “My staff (Josh Davis, Robbie Flanders, Chaise Parker, Joshua Romain, Joe Scott) did a really good job in helping in the transition and keeping everything together. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

At one point Richmond Hill was in danger of not making the playoffs, much less winning the region. After opening region play by sweeping Brunswick, the Wildcats were in turn swept by Effingham County, and then came a stunning loss to Bradwell Institute which left them in fifth place.

“The Bradwell game put us in a tough spot,” Finley said. “That was the first time we had ever lost to them (25-1) but no one got their head down. We stayed together and Coach did a great job of keeping us from getting down on ourselves, too.”

Richmond Hill rebounded to post season-ending sweeps of Statesboro and South Effingham. When Effingham County stumbled down the stretch, all the dominoes fell into place and the Wildcats had earned the No 1 state tournament seed.

Meaningful win over Statesboro

Jenkins and Finley both agreed the third game with Statesboro was perhaps the biggest game of the season when the Wildcats rallied to get a 5-4 win in nine innings.

Statesboro had tied the game in the top of the seventh and then took a 4-3 lead in the eighth. Richmond Hill tied it once more when sophomore catcher Gavin Martin singled to score Cowan, who had doubled.

In the ninth, the Wildcats won it when Truax doubled to lead off and then came around to score when Statesboro booted sophomore Tyler Fountain’s bunt. Finley got the win with 1.2 hitless innings of relief.

“If we had lost that game, we very well could have missed the playoffs,” Jenkins said. “That game gave us momentum going into South Effingham.”

While Finley had a great season on the mound — he is believed to be the winningest pitcher in the state this season — he also hit .276 at the plate while playing shortstop.

“I’ll be pitching in college,” said Finley, who had a 1.63 ERA and a WHIP of 0.8308.

Boone hit .317 and led the team in hits with 32 and RBI with 25. He also hit a team-high four homers.

Cowan could turn into a real steal for Georgia College as he had a .422 batting average and closed the season with an 11-game hit streak. He missed eight games with an injury and still managed to drive in 20 runs.

“He left a big hole in the lineup,” Jenkins said. “You could tell the difference when he came back. He is also an excellent outfielder.”

The Wildcats lost a lot of talent but will return several players with an upside. Heading the returnees are pitchers Hunter Legas, Garrett Wright and Blayne Newman while Martin, Fountain and Goldrick showed they have the potential to be major contributors.