The ECI baseball team ended their regular season last week, hosting Savannah Christian on Wednesday and closing out the week with a double header in Jefferson Co. against the Warriors.
The Bulldogs are hosting Atkinson Co. in the first round of the state playoffs this week at Joe Harvey Field in a best of three series. Double-header was played yesterday and the if needed game is being played this afternoon. Atkinson is not your typical four seed playing out of the competitive region one. Region one currently has two teams in the top 10 with Charlton Co. (25-1) holding the number one spot and region runner-up Lanier Co. (15-5) coming in at number four in state rankings. Atkinson enters the playoffs ranked at number 16. The 22-6 Bulldogs are holding down the number eight spot. The Bulldogs lost a contentious game against the Red Raiders 6-3 and took both games of the double header against Jefferson Co. 8-0 in the first game and closed the night with an 11-1 win in games played last week. The hits were even against the visiting Raiders on Wednesday with both teams ending the game with seven hits each. But the Bulldogs gave Savannah Christian too many chances to put runs on the board on Wednesday. The pitching staff yielded 11 free passes to Red Raider batters. The Bulldogs had runners in scoring position on several occasions but could not get the timely hit to push those runs across. ECI scored single runs in the first two innings to lead 2-1. The Raiders pecked away to add five more runs through the sixth inning to lead 6-2. ECI added their last run of the game in the seventh and took the loss 6-3. Hudson Henry and Tuff Boddiford led the offense with two hits each.
The Bulldogs blanked the Warriors in the opening game of the double header on Thursday 8-0.
Senior Andrew Chalkley held the Warrior batters to just one hit with 11 strikeouts for the shutout.
The Bulldogs had four players with multiple hits during the game. Gabe Lee, Charlie Rehberg, Jackson Kennedy and Ab Marsh ended the game with two hits eat accounting for eight of the Bulldogs’ 11 hits. James Parker started the second game Thursday, holding Jefferson to just three hits, one walk with six strikeouts in his four innings of work. Gabe Lee closed out the game in the fifth giving up one hit, striking out two Warriors. Rehberg continued his hot bat in Jefferson Co. with three more hits. Ab Marsh matched his first game total with two more hits. Five other Bulldogs had one hit each.
