Suwanee, GA – Monday night kicked off the Wild Card round of the Sunbelt League playoffs. The Crackers are the third seed in the playoffs and hosted the sixth-seed Aviators. In the Wild Card round if the higher seed wins 1 game they move on, and the lower seed would need to win 2 games.

In the first six innings, we saw the Aviators and the Crackers combine for a total of four hits and no runs. In the seventh inning, the Aviators broke the scoreless tie with a monstrous solo homerun hit by Jackson Morgan. Walkers Shaw and Zion Walker held the Crackers scoreless for the first Seven innings allowing only 1 hit. Going into the bottom of the eighth inning the Crackers were looking to rally to prevent an elimination game.

Breydon Divine started the bottom of the eighth inning with a walk and Tyler Kelson doubled the Crackers hit total with a single. Divine and Kelson advanced to second and third on a Wild Pitch setting up the game-tying Sac Fly hit by Trevor Allan. With two outs Drew Rothschild followed Allan with an RBI double that put the Crackers in the lead. Jaden Anderson and Kaleb Huffman were intentionally walked to load the bases with two outs. Davis Roesler got an RBI walk on a four-pitch at-bat that gave the Crackers a 3-1 lead going into the top of the ninth inning. Jayson Barber was put in to close out the game for the Crackers and stuck out the three batters he faced in the ninth. This ended the Aviator's season and advanced the Crackers to the Simi Finals.

The key to the Cracker's success on Monday night was their starting pitcher Christian Donaldson. Donaldson was getting outs all night long facing the minimum amount of batter in 6 of the 8 innings he pitched. He gave up only 3 hits and 1 run but he gave the Crackers batters a chance to rally and win the game.

The Crackers will face the Gainesville Gol’Diggers in the semifinals and the First game is scheduled for Friday night in Gainesville. The season series between the two has gone the Gol’Diggers way with a 3-1 advantage. This matchup puts two of the winningest franchises against each other with the two combining for 6 SBL Championships.