Mar. 17—Brunswick High’s baseball team looks to bounce back after dropping Game 1 to Statesboro 4-1 on Monday.
Tonight’s game was supposed to be in Statesboro, but due to some COVID-19 and weather circumstances, the two teams decided to play it at Bud Couch field, so Game 3 will get moved to Statesboro on Friday.
Coach Greg Roberts said Monday’s game wasn’t a terrible showing from his team, that just a few mistakes cost the Pirates the game.
“I didn’t think we played extremely bad. We made one error, and one of the guys had a flare or two after that (and) gave up three runs in the second inning. Other than that, the game was pretty clean,” Roberts said. “Statesboro played well defensively — they pitched really well too. Kyle (Lodise) pitched well last night for us, and for the most part, we played pretty well, defensively.”
The Pirates and Blue Devils tied it up at 1-1 after the first inning after Riley Morgan hit a sacrifice fly ball to score a run. Brunswick totaled four hits, while Statesboro had eight.
“I felt like we squared up a lot of balls — so did they. We squared up more balls last night than we have in quite some time,” Roberts said. “We didn’t play poorly last night. They just played a little better than we did.”
Roberts said baseball is a game of inches, and Monday night just didn’t go their way.
“In region play, that’s how it works sometimes — that’s baseball,” Roberts said. “That’s kind of what I told the kids — ‘Look, you can’t be upset that you played poorly. You had one mistake here, and we, get a ball bounces two feet this way and six inches the other that game has a completely different outcome.’ So it’s a game of inches, and the inches didn’t go our way last night.”
As the Pirates look ahead for Game 2 tonight, Roberts said the Blue Devils are like the Pirates. Coach Chris Bishop and Roberts have known each other for a while and run their programs in a similar manner.
“They’re very athletic, and they got a few more guys that are bigger and stronger than our guys in the middle of the lineup. As far as what they look like and how they play, Coach Bishop does a good job with his guys. He attacks the game a lot like I do.”
Roberts said he’s happy with where his team is at right now.
“We’re in good shape. We want to win the series, and that’s our goal — to try and win every series,” Roberts said. “That’s not out of our reach at this point. So I feel comfortable — I just hope we go out and play well. If we play well, I feel like we give ourselves a chance to win.”
The Pirates will be missing some starters on Wednesday because of quarantine, Roberts said it’s been tough, but they’ll treat it as the next man up mentality.
“We’ve had kids out of practice, but we’ve not had any in a while. So this was the first game situation that we’re not going to have some guys for sure tonight,” Roberts said. “It’s tough.
“You get guys in a lineup, and you start getting comfortable — start getting a mix of players out there together a lot and then throw a hiccup in it just like that is completely out of our control. We’ve got guys out there practicing at a lot of positions. We’ll move those guys in those spots. They may not be as comfortable, but they know what to do — they’re prepared.”
Game 2 is set for a 6 p.m. start at Bud Couch Field as Brunswick looks to tie up the series against Statesboro and avoid a second straight loss.
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