TIFTON — Tiftarea Academy’s road to the baseball final four gets a head start on other schools this week when they play at Heritage of Newnan at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Fridays and Saturdays are the usual date for state playoff games, but Tiftarea head coach Brad Porter said the sides came to agreement on an earlier playing date because graduation is Friday in Chula.

A second game will be Saturday at 1 p.m. If necessary, a third game will be played after. The winner will move on to face either John Milledge Academy or Frederica Academy in the final four.

“They’re a good baseball team,” said Porter. “Two very good starters [and] good pitchers at the top of their rotation.”

“They play good defense.”

Heritage advanced to the second round with a sweep over Edmund Burke Academy last Saturday. The Panthers are here after defeating Gatewood 4-3 and 2-1 Friday.

Tiftarea’s wins both came via sixth inning comebacks.

The Panthers tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth before Dawson Patterson knocked in Grant Hall for the winning run in the bottom of the seventh in the opener. Cain Cooper’s double down the third base line scored Patterson for a 2-1 lead in the nightcap.

The team is ready to go for another round, said Porter.

The trip will not only be a long one, but to a school with a stadium that Porter described as being a bit odd.

For starters, the fences are quite a bit shorter than at Tiftarea. Coaches told Porter some of the distances were 290-295 feet. It is 320 feet down the lines at Tiftarea and even deeper to centerfield.

He described the stadium as sitting on a hill with a downhill slope. An overhead shot shows protective netting to keep balls away from the tennis courts.

The overhead view provides an image even stranger: baseball and softball fields sitting nearly on top of one another. Left field for softball spills almost to first base for baseball. Porter said a temporary fence was erected depending on the sport.

Not surprisingly, the Hawks have shown a ton of power in the stadium.

That does not worry Porter.

“Both teams play in it,” he said. “We just have to keep the ball down.”

With an offense like Heritage’s that might be difficult.

The Hawks batted around in consecutive innings against Edmund Burke, turning a 5-2 deficit into a 15-5 victory. Kirby Arnall, Jacob Bryant and Jake Smith all had run-scoring doubles in the contest, Smith’s being ruled as such instead of a home run.

Bryant was the pitcher of record of the first game. Eighth grader David White started the second contest, but had to exit early after being bloodied by a line drive to the face. Fortunately, White walked off the field under his own power.

It’s a situation Porter said he had unfortunately seen more than once. Earlier this year, a Panther base hit caused dental injuries to a Brookwood hurler.

White has started throughout the season, according to Heritage’s GameChanger account. Whether he will be in action against Tiftarea is up in the air.

“We don’t know what his status or condition is,” said Porter.

Heritage has plenty of other starters if White is out. Henry Arnall and Cole Stephens have both started games.