Summer baseball season is in full swing as evidenced by this week’s array of games.
Locally, the Gainesville A’s and Gainesville Travelers will enter into the second week of their respective seasons.
The Gainesville A’s will complete their unfinished game before playing a nightcap against Dawsonville tonight at Dawson County High. Then the A’s visit Douglasville on Tuesday and Loganville on Thursday. Gainesville plays a doubleheader against Canton at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The Gainesville A’s are made up of local high school standouts including Brad Stone of Flowery Branch and Andy Edmondson of Gainesville as well as former Flowery Branch standout and current Piedmont College player Cody Ackerman.
Meanwhile, the Gainesville Travelers open the week with a game at the Augusta Nationals on Tuesday. On Friday, the Travelers play a doubleheader at the Windward Ringers in Alpharetta.
The Travelers roster is made up of former area high school players, including Flowery Branch grad Patrick Henry, now playing at Valdosta State, Gainesville High grads Justin Fordham (South Georgia College) and Zach Bennett (North Georgia College & State University) and West Hall High grad Luis Delgado.
Other players on the roster for the Travelers include, East Hall grad Ken Wise (Gordon College), North Hall grad Josh Wright, Flowery Branch grads Justin Pagano (Georgia Perimeter) and Matthew Kerul (Marshall), and Gainesville High graduate Blaine Martin (Reinhardt College).
Atlanta Braves
Coming off a sweep-stopping, rally win against the Brewers on Sunday in which top prospect Tommy Hanson made his Major League debut, the Atlanta Braves enter into a four-game home series with the Pirates beginning today.
The Braves are currently in third place in the National League East Standings, three games behind the second-place Mets and six games out of first.
Kenshin Kawakami (3-6. 4.63 ERA) will take on Zach Duke (6-4, 2.62) today in Game 1 of the Braves, Pirates series.
The Braves end the week in Baltimore, where they will take on the Orioles. Baltimore is the American League East’s last-place team, eight games out of first place.
Hanson is scheduled to make his second start of the season in the first game of the series at Camden Yards.
Gwinnett Braves
The Gwinnett Braves start the week away and end up at home as they take on Columbus today and Tuesday and start a series in Lawrenceville against Scranton-Wilkes Barre, the Yankees Triple-A team, on Thursday.
If there isn’t enough baseball going on locally to suit your fancy, the Subway series between the New York Mets and New York Yankees begins Saturday and the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., begins Wednesday.
NBA finals
The NBA finals will also continue this week with Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Thursday in Orlando. The Lakers lead the series 2-0 over the Magic.