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SEHS-Brunswick baseball series carries subregion implications
James Brooks
No. 16 James Brooks slides into second base on his stomach in the bottom of the 1st with the Mustangs up 1-0. (Photos by Gilbert Miller/Effingham Herald.)

By Donald Heath

Special for the Effingham Herald


GUYTON – Winning four of its first five subregion baseball games put South Effingham in a great spot to claim a subregion title.

And yes, the Mustangs’ three-game set with Brunswick this week is huge.

That’s all SEHS coach Jesse Osborne wanted to concede Wednesday night after his squad rolled over Statesboro 13-2 for its second straight mercy rule stoppage of the Blue Devils.

“The Brunswick series is a big series, but we’re trying not to get ahead of ourselves,” said Osborne, who apparently knows a little something about baseball.

His team has six first-year starters, including three sophomores, and sometimes the group is as unpredictable as the recent weather. Two days later, Statesboro stunned SEHS 3-1.

A week earlier, the same scenario occurred after the Mustangs blew away Islands 13-3, then lost to the Sharks 1-0 on another bleak Friday outing.

SEHS (10-6, six losses by a total of 11 runs) dropped to 4-2 in Region 1-5A South play after the loss to the Blue Devils, but the Mustangs could point to several positives while winning the first two games.

Game 1 starter Lance Cantaline struck out 13 en route to an 11-0 victory in a game shortened to five innings because of the 10-run rule.

In Game 2, SEHS scored in all four innings and didn’t bat in the fifth while administering another beatdown. Six of the nine batters in the lineup reached base at least twice. Sophomore Jacob Duncan had two hits and an RBI. Junior JT Barkley added two hits and drove in two runs.

Dalton Redmon
No. 2 Dalton Redmond gets a hit in the bottom of the third inning with the Mustangs up 9-2.
The bottom four in the lineup – Cantaline, Bryce Hodges, Carter Futch and Lawton Bowen – were on base in nine of their 11 at bats (three hits, three walks, two hit by pitches and an error), scored eight runs and had three RBIs.

The quartet ignited a six-run second inning. Cantaline led off getting hit by a pitch and Hodges, Futch and Bowen each singled. All four scored and a 2-0 lead ballooned to 8-0 before the inning ended.

“I’ll give it to the boys, they’ve been in the (batting) cages working hard,” Osborne said. “They’ve made some adjustments and we got back to the basics – don’t try to do too much.”

South’s 13 runs tied a season-high – previously set in the Islands game on March 4.

Junior lefthander Nico Ellwood was the benefactor of the run support against Statesboro. Ellwood struck out five and allowed just four hits over three innings.

James Brooks, a freshman, and Futch, a sophomore, pitched scoreless fourth and fifth innings to complete the abbreviated night.

Although the Mustangs suffered a disappointing Game 3 loss to Statesboro, by winning the series two games to one, SEHS can still win the subregion and take a No. 1 seeding into the region tournament by winning two of the three games against the Pirates and sweeping three games against Bradwell Institute.

A year ago, Brunswick finished second in the region and won two of the three games against the Mustangs, who finished fourth.

Osborne just wants to think about the present. SEHS opened the series by hosting the Pirates (9-7, 4-2) on March 17, then traveled to Brunswick today (March 19) for Game 2 with the third game back in Guyton on Friday.

“We’re trying to take it one game at a time,” Osborne said.