Eagles Travel to Sunny South Florida for Weekend Series

David Finney | photo by Holly Heath

Lakeland, FL - At the beginning of the week the schedule had the Eagles Baseball Team set for a weekend series home at Ken White Baseball Field, however, the weather forecast threw a curve in the schedule. With some quick scrambling by Coach Burton and his staff, they were able to avoid the downpour that was scheduled to drench North Georgia at the end of the week and the Eagles were able to pick up a series with Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida where the weather was scheduled to be sunny and warm.  The team packed up on Wednesday afternoon for the trip to Florida where they would play a three-day series.

Game One was scheduled for Thursday afternoon where Pablo Barquero would get the starting nod by Coach Burton.  Barquero would scatter four hits over the 4.1 innings that he pitched and have three strikeouts. Going into the game, Southeastern was ranked #3 nationally and Reinhardt was sitting at #21. It was two talented and highly skilled teams facing off for an early-season matchup.

The game started off great for the Eagles as Patrick Baggett would score one in the first inning after getting a single to left. They would hold Southeastern scoreless in the bottom of the 1st. In the second, Albert Mora started off with a double and things were heating up for the Eagles. Later, Baggett would get a single again getting Mora and Lance Dockery across the plate. The lead would not last long as Southeastern would get two back in the bottom of the second on a home run, 3-2 Eagles. Barquero would settle down after this getting three straight outs.

Tucker Zdunich would lead off the third with a solo homer adding to the Eagles lead. Jarrett Burney would follow the homer with a double and later would score after Lance Dockery hit a sacrifice fly to left putting the Eagles up 5 to 2. The fourth inning would see the Eagles being held scoreless and Southeastern getting another run back on a solo home run.

The Eagles would be able to pick up a couple of more runs in the 6th and 7th inning, however, it was the bottom of the 6th inning that would be the backbreaker for the Eagles. Patrick Baggett had a solo home run to start off the top of the sixth, but Southeastern would use the rest of this inning to make a furious catch-up to Reinhardt. They scored five runs on a solo-homerun and then another home run with the bases full.  It was a devastating blow putting Southeastern up 8-6. The Eagles did pick up a run in the seventh, but this would be their last run of the game giving the Fire the narrow 8-7 win.

The two teams will play another game Friday and then one more on Saturday to wrap up the series. Coach Burton had this to say about the game and his team, "We battled hard and unfortunately we fell a run short. That is a really good baseball team that can win a lot of different ways, but I think we are good too. In these games, all it takes is one inning, and the five-run inning cost us but we still came back and showed fight."

"I hope our guys are starting to believe in what we have been preaching since September, I see it. Now we just need to believe it and go do it."

 Tune in tomorrow to watch the second game of this series at 3 pm and see if the bats can continue getting hits for Coach Burton.