The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ANFERNEE Seymour and the Rome Braves made team history by reaching the Class A (Full) South Atlantic League Championship series for the first time in 13 years.

The Braves will take on the Lakewood BlueClaws in the championship series which begins 7:05pm tonight at State Mutual Stadium in Rome, Georgia.

Rome booked their berth to the series when they closed out the Charleston RiverDogs in the final game of the three game semi-finals with a 4-1 win Saturday night.

They claimed the South Atlantic League Southern Division title with the win. Max Fried struck out 11 over 7 2-3 innings. Lakewood swept Hagerstown in two games to win the Northern Division title on Friday.

It will be the first time the Braves played in the championship series since their inaguaral season in 2003. The Braves won the title that season.

This is the first time since 2012 that the Braves have been in the postseason when they won the Southern Division second-half title to advance to the division playoffs.

A slow start to the season paced the Braves well behind the pack and, in the first half, they finished with just a 27-42, just good enough for sixth place in the Southern Division.

Seymour came on board for a torrid second half and the Braves went 43-27 the rest of the way.

Braves manager Randy Ingle told Wayne Cavadi that the turnaround was due to the teams wealth of young talent reaching their potenential.

“We have a lot of talent on this club, and a lot of young talent on this club,” Ingle said.

“The youngest in the league by far. I was looking the other day, I think [Charleston] has one teenager over there and we have nine.”

In 20 games with the Braves thus far, Seymour is hitting .243 with four RBI, an OBP of .278, an OPS of .535 with six stolen bases.

Seymour was traded from the Miami Marlins to the Atlanta Braves in a three-player deal which also saw the Braves acquire pitcher Michael Mader in exchange for relief pitcher Hunter Cervenka.

He entered the Braves’ lists of prospects ranked at No.19, according to MLB.com’s 2016 Prospect Watch. He is ranked fourth among shortstops after No.1 overall prospect Dansby Swanson, No.2 Ozzie Albies and No.8 Kevin Maitan.

Seymour was ranked No.8 in the Marlins farm system but goes to a Braves organisation known for its deep talent pool in the minors. In 124 games this year, Seymour hit .253 with 70 runs scored, 43 stolen bases and 30 RBI. He has recorded a slugging percentage of .300, an OBP of .293 and an OPS of .593 and 146 total bases.