Making it to the semifinals has been a growing trend for Andalusia High School boys’ teams, but the Bulldog baseball team (26-4) hopes to break the trend of going down in the semifinals as they travel to Centerville today to take on Bibb County (25-11) in fourth round of the Class 4A state playoffs.

“This is another appearance in the fourth round for AHS boys’ athletics,” Andalusia head coach Tyler Dent said. “We have three seniors that went to the fourth round two years ago in football and again this year in football. Then you have Ethan, who is just a special player, that has gone to the fourth round in three different sports this year.”

Dent said his team isn’t satisfied with just making it to round four.

“There is a different mindset with this team,” Dent said. “We are not happy with just being here. We want to break the chain and take this a step further to the state championship.”

This round of the playoffs will be approached just like the first three rounds, Dent said.

“We just have to keep doing the things that we have done the past three rounds,” Dent said. “Our pitching has been really good, we are hitting the ball well, picking up timely hits and making the plays that we need to in the field. At practice, we are still working to get better each day as a team and put it all together on the field come game time.”

In the fourth round of the playoffs, Dent said every team is going to be top notch and that Bibb County will be no different.

“They are a very good team and their coach does a great job,” Dent said. “They have played some very quality opponents during the playoffs. They have about three arms that can command the strike zone and they don’t have any easy outs in the lineup. They have a good center fielder. He is a hard-throwing lefty that swings the bat well. He will be someone that we have to keep an eye on.”

Dent said that he knows that his players are ready to take on the challenge of the fourth round.

“These kids haven’t changed one bit,” Dent said. “They don’t get too emotional one way or the other. They are just a joy to be around. We have been fortunate to have different people feeding us on the Tuesday nights during the playoffs and this past week I was telling a man about how pleasant and respectful that these young men are. Things like that trickle over to the baseball field. They like to be around each other and want to do things that help the team. That’s so important and it’s a testament to how they play together.”

Through six playoff games, Andalusia has out scored its opponents 68-8.

Andalusia and Bibb County will begin today at 5 p.m. Game two is scheduled for 7 p.m., and if necessary, game three will be played at noon on Friday.

The Class 4A state championship will begin on Tuesday May 15 at Patterson Field in Montgomery.