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ECHS wins key region baseball series from Glynn
Luke Edwards
Effingham County's Luke Edwards pitched four innings without surrendering a hit, but didn't get a decision in the Rebels' 5-3 win over Glynn Academy on March 6. Mark Lastinger for the Effingham Herald

By Donald Heath

Special for the Effingham Herald

 

SPRINGFIELD – Effingham County began the non-region baseball season with just three wins in 10 games. But the Rebels turned things around at just the right time.

ECHS defeated highly regarded Glynn Academy 6-3 and 5-3 before losing the finale 8-3 on Friday to win its first three-game region series of the spring, two games to one.

“Week by week, we’re getting better,” ECHS coach Eric McCombie said. “I think we’re getting a toughness identity. We resemble a good team right now.”

The Rebels (5-8, 2-1 Region 2-6A) found a winning edge against the Red Terrors by making fewer mistakes. It didn’t hurt that Glynn was missing several key players because of suspensions.

ECHS parlayed six walks, four hit batsmen and five errors into six runs in Game 1 and broke a deadlock with a walk and two errors to score two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning in Game 2.

Sophomore Ayden Roeser allowed just three runs (two earned) in five innings and Wes Ward closed out the series opener with two scoreless innings and the junior trio of Luke Edwards, Caleb Swindle and Dylan Huntley gave the Rebels another solid pitching effort in Game 2.

“We grinded out at bats and the pitching competed out there and found a way to get outs when they needed them,” McCombie said. “If we keep grinding out at bats and keep grinding out innings, we’ll be OK.”

Newton Kieffer
Effingham County's Newton Kieffer celebrates his lead-off double in the second inning against Glynn Academy on March 6. Kieffer eventually came around to score the Rebels' first run during a 5-3 win over the Red Terrors. (Mark Lastinger for the Effingham Herald.)
It wasn’t always pretty, but the Rebels found ways to excel. In Game 2, third baseman Aiden Garcia out-ran a Red Terror to unoccupied home plate and applied a tag to get the final out of the sixth inning and keep the game tied.

McCombie said Garcia, a junior, had never been a starter before. But when Caden Kessler suffered an injury, Garcia stepped in and has been solid.

“It was a heads up play by Aiden,” McCombie said. “We preach in practice ‘Play the game’ because there’s always going to be something that happens that you’re not expecting. Credit to him for understanding what he needed to do in that situation.”

The little things have added up. Q King laced a run-scoring double to highlight a four-run fifth inning in Game 1, which expanded a 2-1 lead to 6-1. King started the season 2-for-24, but now has four hits in his last seven at bats.

Huntley didn’t have his best stuff in Game 2, but pitched out of a bases-loaded jam with a strikeout to end the game.

ECHS has a week off before facing another key three-game series with defending region champion Evans. The Rebels led the Knights in the seventh inning of all three games last season before losing each game.

The series kicks off with a single game March 19 in Springfield followed by a doubleheader in Evans on March 22.