The Grace Christian Eagles have played two games on the diamond since their opening day loss to Sylva Bay. They took on Sylva Bay a second time and lost 18-1 without having a hit. Austin Paul scored the lone run in the first inning. Paul was walked and then scored on an error, where Grayson Skelton reached third.
The Eagles then took another loss last Friday to Starkville Christian 13-4. The Eagles led 3-0 after the first inning, however, gave up seven runs in the second. Miles Brownlee and Jack Butler opened the game with back-to-back singles before Skelton hit a one out triple to score Butler and Brownlee. Nick Culwell grounded out on the next at bat, however, brought in Skelton to score from third. The Eagles didn’t score again until the fourth when the Starkville pitcher walked a run in. Grayson Skelton started in the mound against Starkville Christian and struck out nine of his batters.
He gave up eight of the 13 runs on eight hits. Butler came in for the final 1.2 innings and struck out three batters while only allowing five runs on three hits. With the Eagles finally seeing some success from the bats, Head Coach Robert Jones said it was a “breath of fresh air.” “It shows we can put runs on the board,” Jones said.
Jones expressed that the Eagles left a lot of runs on base, including leaving the bases loaded on two separate occasions. Jones expressed that his defense needs some work. “Fielding needs improvement,” Jones said, “Fly balls in the outfield are our weakest point right now.”
While the Eagles were leading until the bottom of the second, Jones saw what caused the Eagles to lose the lead. “Once they started putting the ball in the outfield, we went downhill,” he said.
Jones is looking to work out those weaknesses throughout the season. The Eagles are scheduled to take on Meridian Homeschool on Friday. Their next scheduled game is on April 10 against Regents of Oxford.
