If Brett Griffin could take two innings back from the weekend, it would have been stellar.
As it is, the Effingham County Rebels baseball team won twice in three games in a two-day affair that included Starr’s Mill, Luella, Statesboro and Camden County.
“We had two innings against Starr’s Mill I wasn’t pleased with,” Griffin said. “We gave them opportunity after opportunity to win.”
But the Rebels (3-1) sandwiched big wins over Luella and Camden County over the setback to Starr’s Mill. Effingham thumped the Lions 9-2 in the opener before falling to the Panthers 19-5 Saturday. The Rebels closed out the tournament with a 6-3 win over the Wildcats.
The Rebels led Starr’s Mill 3-1 going into the fourth inning before the Panthers struck for nine runs. They tacked on seven more in the sixth as Effingham County committed six errors.
“If we could take away those two innings, it would be great,” Griffin said.
Zach Dotson was 5-for-7 with two doubles and two RBIs Saturday. Josh Moreland was 3-for-4 in the win over Camden and Justin Rogers went 2-for-2. Dylan Scott struck out five in 3 2/3 innings against the Wildcats and was 2-for-4 in the loss to Starr’s Mill.
Griffin wanted to bring competitive teams and thinks he got just what he wanted.
“Everybody was right there together,” he said. “There were some good teams and it was a lot of fun.”
The weekend served to tell Griffin a little bit more about his team before the Region 3-AAAA schedule cranks up in two weeks.
“I’m learning who can give us quality innings and who can give us good at-bats,” he said. “We’ve still got some things to figure out. We’ve still got some things to see in the next couple of weeks.”
There isn’t much time for the Rebels to work on the things they learned from the weekend. There was only one practice — Monday — between the weekend and today’s game against in-county rival South Effingham at Rebel Field.
“That’s kind of what I’m trying to get the kids to understand,” Griffin said. “You’ve got to learn as you go. You might not get to practice it for several days.”
Weekend scores
Friday
Starr’s Mill 5, Statesboro 4
Effingham 9, Luella 2
Saturday
Camden 9, Starr’s Mill 0
Luella 7, Statesboro 1
Starr’s Mill 19, Effingham 5
Effingham 6, Camden 3
