A COMBINATION of walks, hit batsmen and errors added up to a disaster for East Jackson Monday.
The Eagle baseball team issued five walks, hit two batters and committed three errors in just four innings in a 19-4 loss to Oglethorpe County.
“This was one we just need to forget,” East Jackson coach Matt Pruitt said. “Sometimes you can take away some positives from a loss, but that’s not the case here. It’s one thing to play poorly, but we really didn’t compete or play with much intensity, and that was the disappointing part.”
The Patriots jumped on East Jackson with five runs in the first and eight more in the second en route to the lopsided win over the Eagles, who beat Oglethorpe County 6-2 just three days earlier.
Caleb Hardy went 2-for-3, while Austin Johnson (RBI single), Josh Valles (RBI sac fly), Robert McKay (RBI single), Alex Martin (single) and Ethan Lyons (RBI double) also led East Jackson offensively.
East Jackson returns to play today (Wednesday) at Jackson County.
“We’d been showing signs of progress, and this was a step backward,” Pruitt said. “But we don’t have any time to mope around. We’ve got a long string of tough region games ahead, starting Wednesday with Jackson County We just have to bury this one and work to get back on track. I have faith our kids will do that.”
Times were happier Friday during the first game of this series.
McKay threw a complete game and was backed by some pretty crafty glove work from his teammates as the Eagles broke a four-game skid.
“The pitching doesn’t get much better,” Pruitt said.
McKay scattered seven hits over seven innings of work, walking one and striking out one in another quality start for the sophomore lefthander.
“McKay has been consistent all year,” Pruitt said. “That’s fairly typical … And the defense really picked him up.”
That was certainly the case for freshman centerfielder Colton Puckett who made two diving grabs — in addition to handling the other fly balls that came his way — to wow the home crowd at Eagle Field.
“He made a couple highlight plays out there and made the routine plays,” Pruitt said.
Eventually, the offense came around, too, as East Jackson took a 3-1 lead in the third inning. The Eagles loaded the bases and scored their first run when Oglethorpe County starting pitcher Clay Ogle beaned Lyons. Valles then followed with a two-run single.
East Jackson padded the lead with three more runs in the sixth.
Brandon Brown provided a two-out, run-scoring single, while Hardy drove home two more runs with a bloop single to centerfield to push the Eagle edge to 6-1.
“The insurance in the sixth inning was huge,” Pruitt said. “That was something I was really pleased with.”
The Eagles were coming off a near-miss two days earlier.
East Jackson rallied from a 9-1 sixth-inning deficit last Wednesday at home against Hart County but ended up losing 14-9 in eight innings.
East Jackson scored four runs in the sixth and four in the seventh to tie the game at nine but the Bulldogs scored five in the top of the eighth and the Eagles weren’t able to answer.
Valles and Lyons both drove home three runs. Valles was 1-for-3 and also walked. Lyons went 2-for-4 with a double. Other leading hitters were Nate Strait (two singles and two RBIs), Martin (2-for-4, double, two runs) and Hardy, who reached base on three out of five trips (two walks and a hit-by-pitch) and scored three runs.
