Newton Citizen

CONYERS - The softball teams in Region 8-AAAA will have to wait one more day to get the post-season started.

After heavy rains blanketed much of north Georgia Sunday night and Monday morning, four games were postponed and moved to today, including Region 8B No. 4 Salem's game against Winder-Barrow at Heritage High School and Region 8B No. 3 Rockdale's game with Habersham Central at Apalachee.

"Our field, when I went in (Monday) morning there was still sprinkling rain; our field was not in great shape," said Heritage coach Dickey Hightower. "The outfield was really sloppy and the infield had standing water and our field never has standing water. We went ahead and called it. Apalachee said they couldn't play on their field (and) it would've really been a stretch to play on our field."

Salem will play Winder at 4 p.m., with the winner taking on the Region 8B No. 2 seed Heritage at 6 p.m.

At Apalachee, Rockdale and Habersham will play for a spot in the 6 p.m. game against the host Wildcats, Region 8A's No. 2 seed.

Hightower's team, coming off a sloppy, extra-inning loss to Rockdale last Wednesday, is one of the favorites, along with Apalachee and top seeds Madison County and Loganville.

"I'm having a lot of fun coaching these girls," said Hightower. "You never know exactly what's going to happen, you never know. I've got confidence in them; we can play with anyone if we play good."

Salem and Rockdale have an uphill climb if they want to claim one of the region's four-state playoff spots. If Salem, which has been shut out eight times in 2009, gets past the Region 8A No. 3 seed Bulldoggs, it will have to beat Heritage. Something they have not been able to accomplish since 2005 to stay in the winner's bracket.

Rockdale might have the best shot of the bottom four teams to topple a top-two seed. The Bulldogs only lost 3-1 to Region 8B No. 1 seed Loganville last week and split two games with Heritage.

The tournament continues Wednesday at Loganville and Madison County, while the championship is scheduled for Friday at Madison County.

Kurt Aschermann Jr. can be reached at kurt.aschermann@rockdalecitizen.com