Although the Eagles are coming off of being swept by a district opponent, East Marion is in great shape to secure a program-building postseason berth.
The Eagles (4-8, 2-4) are firmly in third place in Region 8-2A after being swept by Perry Central, but four teams from each district make the playoffs.
In Game 2 at Perry Central April 8, one bad inning haunted the Eagles once again — they lost Game 1 5-1 after allowing four runs in the seventh innings — as they surrendered six runs in one inning in an 8-3 loss.
Head coach Mandell Echols said LJ Andrews pitched a quality game but that the Eagles made five errors behind him. At the plate, the Eagles were stymied by Perry Central’s Tyler Pierce, who consistently threw strikes without overwhelming stuff.
“He wasn’t throwing hard. We just weren’t finishing our swings. We were making contact and hitting it right to them, and they were making all of the plays,” Echols said. “We gave up six runs in the second inning, and that’s where we made a whole bunch of errors. They were putting the ball in play and were aggressive on the basepaths (12 steals). At the end, they brought in their ace (Brett Robnett), and we hit him well. We scored three runs off him.”
Echols said he joked with his assistant coach after the game that if the Bulldogs had thrown Robnett to start, East Marion would have won the game.
East Marion has a home doubleheader against Collins Friday that will conclude its Region 8-2A schedule. With a pair of wins over the Tigers, the Eagles would secure the No. 3 seed from the district with a 4-4 record. Echols referenced that North Forrest swept Collins, while the Eagles swept North Forrest 12-1 and 19-1.
“They’re young, and the baseball knowledge is not good. They don’t have much pitching,” he said. “That will determine if we make the playoffs or not — right now we’re in third — and if we lose to them, we might not make it. We should win that one though.”
If the Eagles are able to take care of business against Collins and secure a spot in the postseason, Echols said that would be massive for the program, especially after all the players they have lost in recent years.
“After the last couple of years of not coming close to this year making the playoffs, that’s a step forward, especially with the leadership we’ve lost,” he said. “With Devin Daniels being gone, Vashon Sims not playing, Lawrence Lambert moving back to New Orleans, Ashton Allred — one of my pitchers — went homeschool and my shortstop, Elijah Alston, went virtual and couldn’t play. Without that group of guys and to still make the playoffs, that makes me feel a little optimistic that we have a chance in the next year or so coming up.”
Daniels had been the heart and soul of the baseball program for four years before graduating and playing football at Belhaven. Sims was a special player on the diamond, batting .485 over his freshman and sophomore seasons, before getting in a car accident and suffering serious injuries prior to his junior year. Once he was cleared, he decided to focus on his primary sport, basketball, in which he will be signing a scholarship to play collegiately this week. Lambert was a top-of-the-order hitter who could cover serious ground in the outfield.
Despite all those subtractions, Echols has the Eagles on the doorsteps of the playoffs.
The Eagles will then close the regular season with five non-district contests in a nine-day span, taking on Mize (Saturday at home), Lumberton (Monday on the road), Richton (Tuesday on the road), Tylertown (April 23 on the road) and West Marion (April 26 on the road).
