The Effingham County Rebels baseball team washed out the sour taste of two losses in less than 24 hours Tuesday night.
Effingham ripped the visiting Glynn Academy Red Terrors for a 16-4 victory in a game shortened to four and a half innings by the mercy rule.
“We needed this,” Rebels coach Brett Griffin said, “especially coming off two losses and two close losses like we had.”
The lopsided victory completed the Rebels’ first circuit through the Region 3-AAAA South schedule. They’re 3-1 in the region and tied with Ware County atop the subregion, though Ware holds the edge with its 8-7 winning in eight innings last Friday. The Rebels lost 13-12 the next day at Benedictine.
Tuesday’s game against Glynn didn’t start out well, as Bo Way and Michael Canter singled to lead off. But senior starting pitcher Dylan Scott retired the next three batters, getting Chad Sanders to strike out swinging to end the threat.
“That was big,” Griffin said of Scott escaping the jam. “You don’t want to fall down right there. He was pitching well, and he pitched himself out of it.”
The Rebels wasted no time against Sanders, the Terrors’ starting pitcher. Zach Dotson and Scott lined back-to-back run-scoring doubles and Evan Jarman’s groundout brought in another run. Jonathan Rotureau capped the five-run inning with a two-run shot to left for a 5-0 lead.
Canter drove in two runs in the top of the second with a two-out single to left. Effingham, in a game held up at the start for 45 minutes because of the weather, continued its barrage. Garrett Arnsdorff scored the first run of the rally without a ball being put in play. He was hit by a pitch and outraced a pickoff attempt to second base. Way’s throw from first base skipped into the outfield, and Arnsdorff darted for third. He continued on to home after the Terrors outfield was slow in picking the ball up and held on to it.
After two one-out walks, Scott ripped a two-run double to right center, and Justin Rogers followed with a two-run single to center. A wild pitch and a passed ball brought in two more Rebel runners as Effingham (9-5) sent 12 men to the plate.
The Rebels sent 11 to the plate in the next inning, pushing across five more runs. Scott had an RBI triple, Daniel Farmer ripped a run-scoring double just inside third base and Joseph Snooks’ bases-loaded infield single brought in another run. The final two runs trotted in as Josh Moreland’s ground ball went through Red Terrors shortstop Blake Strickland’s legs.
The Rebels had 21 batters reach base via a hit, walk or hit batter, with six of their 11 hits going for extra bases. Scott was 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple, three runs and three RBIs. Dotson was 1-for-1 but scored three runs. Farmer finished 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, and Rogers, Arnsdorff, Rotureau, Justin Wilson and Josh Moreland each had one hit. Rotureau also scored three runs.
“I thought they did a great job of coming back and having great at-bats,” Griffin said. “We felt we needed to be aggressive. Our players did a great job of creating situations where they could be aggressive and taking advantage of it.”
The Red Terrors also committed three errors and had five wild pitches and two passed balls.
“They’re not a bad team,” Griffin said of the Red Terrors, “even though they didn’t show it tonight.”
Way was 3-for-3 and Canter was 2-for-2 for the Red Terrors, who finished with seven hits.
Glynn Academy (5-6, 1-3) got two runs off Jarman in the fourth. D.J. Collins pitched a scoreless fifth inning.
In his three innings, Scott struck out three, walked one and allowed six hits, but he stranded three runners in scoring position.
“Dylan gave us a great performance on the hill, and so did Jarman and D.J.,” Griffin said.
The Rebels travel to Brunswick on Friday to face the Pirates.
