After two cancellations this week, the ECI Bulldogs finally got 2021 baseball underway capturing two wins to begin the season.
Tuesday’s home opener against Burke Co. was cancelled due to conditions at the wet weather pond AKA Joe Harvey Field. The game against Treutlen Co. on Thursday was also cancelled.
Due to one team’s cancellation to play, the Bulldogs were a last-minute addition to the annual CBIT Diamond Day hosted by the Swainsboro Tigers baseball team.
The Bulldogs first game was a 3 p.m. game against the host team Tigers. ECI took the game 2-0 for their first win of the season.
Both pitchers, Lawson Mercer for the Bulldogs and Kaleb Edenfield for the Tigers, kept batters off balance with 19 strikeouts between them, allowing just nine hits during the game.
The game remained scoreless through five innings. Both teams left runners in scoring positions during the early innings but could not get the timely hit to push runners across.
The Bulldogs got the first run of the game in the top of the sixth on a throwing error when Jack Walden stole third and scored when the ball got past the third baseman, putting ECI up 1-0.
With one out in the seventh, Natavus Robertson reached first and advanced to third when Hudson Henry found first on a Tiger error. Trey Hughes squeezed bunted Robertson across the plate as the Bulldogs took a 2-0 lead in the top of the seventh inning.
Mercer and the defense limited the Tigers to a single in the bottom of the inning to end the game with a 2-0 shutout win.
Jack Walden led the Bulldogs at the plate with two hits including a double. Hughes and Robertson got the other two hits for ECI.
Mercer went the distance on the mound allowing just five hits, striking out seven Tigers.
The Bulldogs played Washington Co. a few minutes later in their second game of the day. Unlike the low-scoring affair with the Tigers, this game saw 22 players cross the plate as ECI defeated WACO 17-5.
The Bulldogs jumped on the Hawks early, scoring four runs in the first, two in the second and four more in the third inning. WACO added runs in the first and third with ECI leading 10-2 after three innings.
The Bulldogs broke the game open even more in the top of the fifth inning pushing five runs across the plate. WACO scored three in the bottom of the inning with ECI leading 15-5.
The Bulldogs put the icing on the cake in the top of the fifth inning with two more runs, run-ruling the Golden Hawks in five innings as WACO failed to score in the bottom of the inning.
Joseph Stewart toed the rubber for ECI during the five innings allowing nine hits and four strikeouts.
The Bulldogs pounded out 10 hits with Lawson Mercer leading the way with three hits and four RBI. Stewart, Trey Hughes and Natavus Robertson ended the game with two hits each, with Chase Whitehead getting the other hit.
The Bulldogs went on the road this week with a game against Grovetown on Tuesday, Feb. 23, and will be playing in the annual Burke Co. Invitational in Waynesboro with the first two games against Burke Co. and Jefferson Co.
