Griffin High School’s baseball team will open the Class AAAA state playoffs Friday when the Bears host Northgate in a doubleheader to start the best-of-three series.

Griffin (20-5 overall, 12-0 Region 4-AAAA North) played Northgate (14-11, 10-6 Region 2-AAAA) once this season, beating the Vikings 4-3 on March 5.

For Griffin coach Jamie Cassady, he is looking for his team to start the playoffs the same way it finished the regular season.

“We’ve been swinging the bats well, playing good defense for the most part and out pitchers are throwing strikes. We just want to continue to do that,” Cassady said.

Griffin won 13 consecutive games, including a two-game sweep of Westside Macon in the region tournament, before falling to Dutchtown in a preparation game for the playoffs.

“If we just do the same things we did against Westside and the teams before that, I’ll be happy,” Cassady said. “We’re not going to do anything different.”

As the team did in the region tournament, the Bears will start Greg Fietsam on the mound for the first game, and Jeremy Holcomb will likely start the second game of the doubleheader.

Holcomb started the March 5 game against Northgate and Fietsam came in for relief in the win.

Despite already beating the Vikings once this season, Cassady said he is making sure his team does not enter the game overconfident.

He called Northgate’s region the toughest baseball region in Class AAAA, and added he expects the Vikings to play like a team ranked higher than their No. 4 seed.

“Just because they’re the No. 4 seed does not mean they’re going to play like the typical No. 4 seed,” he said. “I expect it to be some hard fought games. We just need to be mentally focused out there.”