The Statesboro Blue Devil baseball squad pulled off an exciting 11-10 come from behind win Tuesday night against Screven County as they scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh and have now won four of their last five games.
The Blue Devils had a coaching shake up as head coach Nicholas McIntosh left the team after the Bradwell series last week. The Devils proceeded to lose to Harlem, but showed a lot of fight as they came back multiple times against the Gamecocks.
Mathis Lanier hit a two-run single to center, and then with the bases loaded and one out Michael Dinello hit a ground ball to second. Screven County catcher Josh Oglesby was unable to hold on to the throw home, allowing Davis Harrison to score the winning run.
After the game assistant coach Chad Schildt praised the team for their resilience in difficult times.
“We have a pretty young team, and even some of the older players didn’t play much last year and we are trying to change their mindset,” Schildt said. “The biggest thing for us all year has been confidence and playing as a team. The atmosphere was a little different tonight and I am proud of how every time we went down, we found a way to get back up and score some runs.”
Screven took an early 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Gaitlin Scott, but Statesboro answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to go up 2-1. Screven added four runs in the top of the second to make it 5-2 but again Statesboro battled back with three runs in the bottom of the second on an RBI bunt from Aiden Lewis, a sacrifice fly by Aubrey Smith and an RBI single to center by Nathan Newkirk.
The Blue Devils took their first lead of the game with three runs in the fourth. Lewis hit an RBI triple and Aubrey Smith executed a squeeze bunt to make it 8-5.
Jack Lanier shut the Gamecock bats down for three innings, but Screven fought back with five runs in the sixth to grab a 10-8 lead before the Blue Devils scored three runs in the seventh to secure the victory.
“I feel like the guys are really buying in,” Schildt said. “We told them the playoffs for us started about two weeks ago because of the way we started the year. We have all pulled together and tonight just about everyone got in the game and that brings the whole team together even more.”
Statesboro improves to 7-13 overall and 3-5 in region play. Up next the Blue Devils host Swainsboro Thursday at 5:30 at Mill Creek Park.
Elsewhere the Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets dropped to 10-7 overall and 5-2 in region play after a pair of tough losses. SEB lost 3-2 at ECI last week and then dropped another 3-2 decision Tuesday night at Benedictine. The Jackets host Benedictine Thursday at 5:30.
The Bulloch Academy Gators improved to 7-8 overall and 4-0 in region play. The Gators took a pair of games against Frederica winning 9-3 on the road and 7-6 Thursday at home. Up next the Gators are at Mount de Sales Friday at 6:00.
Portal is now 1-13 overall and 1-9 in region play. The Panthers lost three games to ECI this week after being swept by Jenkins County last week. Up next Portal is at Liberty County April 12.
