The Statesboro Blue Devil baseball team ended their regular season Friday night at Mill Creek Park as they dropped a 13-5 decision to Glynn Academy. A win would have secured the No. 3 seed in next week’s state tournament, but even with the loss the Blue Devils are heading to the state as the No. 4 seed.
“We played pretty sloppy tonight,” said Statesboro coach Chris Bishop. “I felt like we pitched okay but we were dealing with a few things tonight. We had a couple players out with injuries and quarantine, and I just didn’t feel we were totally focused out there.”
The Blue Devils fell behind by as much as 11-0 before finally waking up a bit and scoring three runs in the fourth and two runs in the sixth to avoid the run rule being in effect. Ames Rackleff Dake Willimas and Jordan Fennell each had two hits for the Blue Devils to lead the way on offense.
With the regular season finished the Blue Devils now turn their attention to the state playoffs as they will head to Augusta next Thursday for a doubleheader against Lakeside who was the No. 1 seed from region 3-AAAAAA. Bishop feels playing in a tough region has them ready for any opponent.
“Playing in our region I feel like we may be the top region in the state,” said Bishop. “Everyone in our region has at least 2 good pitchers and I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least three or all four teams advance into the second round.”
“We won two out of three this week and achieved our goal of advancing to the post season,” said Bishop. “We would have loved to get a better seed, but we are going to Augusta to take on Lakeside and on paper I think we can play with them. If we play the way we did Monday and Wednesday this week I feel like we can play with anyone in the state.”
Richmond Hill has a couple D-1 signees so does Glynn Academy,” said Bishop. “We have a few kids on our team with that kind of potential too. South Effingham won the region tonight and they probably have the best one through nine players and the deepest pitching staff. I feel like we have the best one through five hitters in the region and a couple solid pitchers as well which should take us far.”
Up next its round one of the state next Thursday on the road in Augusta against Lakeside in a best two out of three format. If the teams split the third and decisive game would be Friday at a yet to be determined time.
