By Tom Peavy

Published: May 8, 2008

Opelika and Prattville have waged some epic battles in the past several years.

But the ones most think about have come on the gridiron, where the two state powers have clashed in the regular season and postseason.

That has led to a bitter rivalry between the two schools that now carries over to the baseball diamond.

And like past football seasons, today’s meeting between No. 1 Opelika and Prattville has huge state implications. The winner of the best-of-three series, which opens with a doubleheader today in Prattville, will move on to the Class 6A state title series. Today’s first game gets under way at 5 p.m., with Saturday’s if-needed Game 3 slated for noon.

Today’s game can be heard on Mix 96.7 FM or online at http://www.mix967online.com, or at http://www.kickerfm.com

“It’s definitely a rivalry,” said Opelika senior shortstop Brooks Robinson, who also quarterbacked the Bulldogs football team this past fall. “They’ve beaten us in football in the fourth round before and they beat us this past fall.

“It’s always good competition when the two of us meet up, whether it’s football or baseball.”

But Robinson stopped short of saying he and the seven of his teammates who also played football were looking for the weekend semifinal series as any sort of payback for years of beatings at the hands of the Lions in football.

“We don’t think of it like that,” Robinson said. “We’re just looking at this as the fourth round of the playoffs and the fact that if we win this one, we’re in the state championship series.”

Along with Robinson, current Opelika baseball players Zach Blatt, Jake Crain, Mike Love, Brandon Rogers, John Gunnels, Chance Lawrence and David Thomas have battled Prattville on the gridiron.

And baseball assistant coach Billy Jones has been an assistant under Spence McCracken for most of the historic football battles.

And Jones knows, even if the baseball players are steering clear of football memories, others will still be looking for the Bulldogs’ baseball team to do what the football team has struggled to accomplish.

“A lot of people in Opelika see this as a chance for payback,” Jones said. “There are a lot of scars in this community when it comes to sports and most have been left by Prattville.

“I think if we’re able to go there and win, it will do a lot to help heal some of those scars from football.”

Opelika enters today’s doubleheader riding the wave of emotions from last week’s three-game battle with McGill-Toolen. After falling in the opener to the Yellow Jackets, the Bulldogs bounced back to win consecutive games in big fashion — including an 18-0 drubbing in the decisive Game 3.

“We’re trying to not get too high and not too low,” Robinson said. “We’re just trying to stay focused on what we have to do each time out and not worry about anything else that’s happened.”

One stat jumps out about the semifinal series that many would think would potentially swell the heads of the Bulldogs — the fact that Opelika has won all four meetings with Prattville this year.

But head coach Barry Hightower said he’s seen nothing in the week’s preparation that makes him think his team is looking ahead to the state finals.

“This is a mature group, and they play that way and handle their business that way,” Hightower said. “They know they’ve beaten (Prattville) four times, but they also know that Prattville is not the same team we faced back then.

“They know that when you get to this point in the playoffs records and rankings don’t matter.”

The winner of the Opelika/Prattville series will move on the the 6A championship series in Montgomery against either Sparkman or Hoover.

| 737-2568