The Raiders were matched more than evenly enough to hold their own, but the Dragons' highly-touted pitching proved too difficult to hit in either game of Thursday's doubleheader.
The month of May got off to a rough start for the Crusaders as they lost via walk-off to Piedmont and Thomas Jefferson, and were crushed in a rematch with Tallulah Falls, on their last road trip of the regular season.
The Yellow Jackets forced overtime with a late goal, but the Raiders answered, and dug deep defensively to win 2-1 and advance to their first-ever state semifinal.
The Raiders followed up a heart-pounding extra inning win with a five-inning rout to take the brooms to the Bruins Thursday, and advance to the round of eight for the first time since 2021.
The Raider boys kept things high and tight in another shutout Wednesday, after Heritage hit two top-corner targets to take out their girls in a second-straight upset Tuesday night.
The Raiders' recent struggles coming up with big hits with runners in scoring position finally ran their course in multiple big innings of Friday's confident wins.
The Hurricanes, thanks to a key fifth-inning RBI and costly Irish error on a tough bounce in the top of the seventh, came out on top of Saturday's winner-take-all game following a split on Friday.
A few extra hits, and one more out in the last of the seventh, was what separated the Falcons from a chance to split as the first game of Friday's doubleheader narrowly got away late.
The Crusaders rattled off two more big wins, and came up a bit short against two quality non-region foes, as they began their final homestand Tuesday and Thursday.
The Raiders' teams picked up back-to-back wins, at separate sites on separate nights, to advance together to next week's round of 16.
