Scrimmage games
High school football
Friday, Aug. 12
Buford at Clarke Central, 7 p.m.
Chestatee at East Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Flowery Branch at Lassiter, 7:30 p.m.
Habersham Central at Stephens County
Lakeview Academy at Commerce, 7:30 p.m.
St. Pius X at Gainesville, 7:30 p.m.
White County at North Forsyth, time TBA
Saturday, Aug. 13
Lumpkin County at Jefferson, time TBA
Thursday, Aug. 18
West Hall at Pickens, 7 p.m.
Greater Atlanta Christian at Dawson County, 7:30 p.m.
Johnson at East Jackson, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 19
Forsyth Central at North Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Jackson County at Athens Christian, 7:30 p.m.
Though only the second week of high school football practice, teams are already gearing up for scrimmage outings this weekend. For some, it’s a quick assessment before the season begins on Aug. 19. But for most, they’ll have two weeks to review game tape before the season opens Aug. 26.
Defending Class AA state champion Buford visits Clarke Central for a scrimmage at 7 p.m. Friday in Athens, then the Wolves open the regular season at Blessed Trinity on Aug. 19. In Gainesville, Riverside Military plays host to Hebron Christian at 7 p.m. Friday for its scrimmage, then opens the season against Pinecrest Academy on Aug. 19 at Maginnis Field.
The only scrimmage game between two Hall County schools is Friday when Chestatee visits East Hall.
West Hall, Johnson, North Hall, Jackson County and Dawson County will play scrimmage outings the following week.
ATLANTA BRAVES: The Braves open up the final series of a 10-day road trip today with Game 1 of a three-game series at Miami. After a day off Thursday, Atlanta comes home to open with a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs and a 10-game home stand.
Derek Lowe (6-10, 4.86 ERA) tries to snap back tonight for the Braves after taking a loss in three straight starts, including giving up seven earned runs and 10 hits last week at Washington. Lowe’s last win came on July 18 at Colorado, but he still gave up four earned runs and eight hits over 6 1/3 innings in that start.
On Tuesday, a much more consistent Brandon Beachy (5-2, 3.49 ERA) will go against the Marlins’ struggling Clay Hensley (1-4, 4.46 ERA). In his last three starts, Beachy is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA and 14 strikeouts (18 1/3 innings). Tim Hudson (11-7, 3.22 ERA) will pitch the final game of the series at Miami.
GWINNETT BRAVES: The Triple-A schedule has less than one month left in the regular season, and the G-Braves are right in the thick of the division title race in the International League’s Southern Division. Entering Sunday’s game, the G-Braves (62-51) were only 1« games back of the league-leading Durham Bulls.
Today, the G-Braves visit the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees in the first of five games over four days.
Tuesday will consist of a doubleheader, completing a game previously rained out between the two teams on May 3.
On Friday, Gwinnett comes home to Coolray Field for a four-game series against the Pawtucket Red Sox.