CAIRO — Cairo has already made history.

The new challenge for the Syrupmakers is to sustain it.

A week after capturing the program’s first region title, the Syrupmakers open the Class AAA playoffs at Jackie Robinson Field today with a 4 p.m. doubleheader against Burke County (15-11). If necessary, the third game of the series is 2 p.m. Saturday.

After finishing their surge to the Region 1-AAA title, the Syrupmakers now are focused on building on that success — seven straight wins. That was coach Ron Best’s message to the Syrupmakers (14-10) this week.

“That was something we talked about the last two weeks of the season, when we knew we had a shot at the region title,” said Best, who is in his first season guiding the Cairo program. “We were talking about it along the lines of, ‘This is an opportunity guys. Don’t let it pass by, because you don’t know when the next one will come along.’

“I’ve coached teams that were really good that didn’t win the region championship. It’s just something special about being that No. 1 team, and now that we’ve done that, why not take this next opportunity and not let this one get by.”

Standing in the Syrupmakers’ way, though, is a pair of Bears — Burke County pitchers Brandon Love and Trent Hillis.

“They are a pitching dominated team,” Best noted. “They’ve played a lot of 2-0 and 2-1 games because their pitching has been very effective.

“These two pitchers, from what we’ve heard, seem to be the next step, a step above what we’ve seen.”

Burke County’s penchant for low-scoring games gives Best hope that Cairo’s offense will have to time to get comfortable against the Bears’ hurlers.

The Syrupmakers

“The second or third time through the order, I think we’ve been on pitchers all year, even the good ones,” he said. “So, I don’t have any reason to think we won’t be on them by then (today). Obviously, I hope so.

“Our pitching has to do a good job of holding their team down — and they haven’t score a lot of runs. We’re going to have to throw strikes and make some defensive plays and keep battling because of their pitching.”

That was the recipe for Cairo’s seven-game winning streak heading to close the season, for the Syrupmakers allowed more than one run just three times in that stretch.

“If we can just keep doing that, I think we’ll be able to stay in the game,” Best said about Cairo’s ability to play good defense and pitch well down the stretch. “We have swung the bat pretty well all year-long, especially the last few weeks.”