Bulldogs’ disastrous second inning leads to home loss

NEWBERRY — Newberry High School varsity baseball team dropped their second game of the season with a tough home loss against a region opponent. The Bulldogs(3-2, 2-1 region 5-AAA) fall 9-2 to Fox Creek(5-3, 1-0 region 5-AAA) at home on Tuesday evening.

The Bulldogs had a minor set back at home as they hosted the Predators at home on Tuesday, March 18 in a region matchup. Mason Mills got his second start of the season for Newberry and he had a strong opening inning. The two teams were scoreless after the first inning, but the Predators got things going at the top of the second.

The home team found themselves in a jam in the early parts of the second inning after a bad throw and an error from the young first baseman, who is replacing senior Kenyon Wise. The Predators quickly had two base runners on base with no outs. Then, an RBI single scored their first run and it kept going. They were able to rack up six total runs in the inning, which could’ve easily been more if Will Satterwhite didn’t make two dynamic throws to third base and home to get to base runners out.

Mills settled down and didn’t allow anymore runs for the rest of his time on the mound. At the plate, the Bulldogs had a hard time getting things going. They only registered three hits in the first five innings and left three base runners stranded during that time as well.

Cash Brown took over on the mound at the bottom of the fifth inning and he got the Bulldogs out of a tough jam. A run did score though after the visitors put two runners on base. Newberry trailed 7-0 going into the bottom half of the fifth inning.

Newberry finally were able to get some runners on base after a single by Brown and the Predators starting pitcher hit a batter. Jackson Griffin was able to drive in a run with a RBI single to put the Bulldogs on the score board.

Both the Bulldogs and Predators were able to add more runs in the seventh and final inning, but the game was already decided.

“We learn that when things don’t go our way then we have to keep battling. I think that is apart of what we are trying to teach our young guys and that is the lesson to be learned from this game. When the bleeding start, then somebody has to stop it. Until we do that, we are going to struggle,” said Bulldogs head coach Dylan Skinner.

He continued, “I do believe though we bounced back after that one bad inning. We played really well minus that inning and if you take that away then its a 2-1 ball game. Overall, some negative and positive just like any other game. We just have to build on it and keep moving on.”

Newberry will be back in action on Thursday, March 20 against Whitmire for Alumni Night.

“You got to have a short memory and you get a chance to come right back. You get two days rest and it’s not like football where you have to sit on a loss for a whole seven days. You get one or two days rest and you can get to play again. Hopefully we can end this week on a good note with a game on Thursday and Friday,” said Skinner. “On Thursday, we have our Alumni night and we hope to see some older guys out here. We are going to honor those guys and hopefully that momentum carries over to Friday. We got Coach Ware doing his famous chicken bog and we are hoping to get a good size crowd here.”

First pitch for Thursday’s game is set for 7:00 p.m.