The East Marion Eagles (3-6, 0-5) have taken their lumps the past month after starting the season with a three-game winning streak, but there have been positive signs in the losses.
The Eagles lost both games of a doubleheader March 27 at Salem 15-5 and 8-1, but they competed with the Wildcats more than the scores indicate, according to head coach Mandell Echols.
“We played a lot better defense, but we just had some crucial mistakes where we could have got out of the inning with no runs but had a young guy drop a ball and (Salem) ended up getting two or three runs out of the inning. We came out flat overall,” he said. “There was a couple guys who came out and played. The young guy who dropped the ball played solid defense after that. But it was downhill after that. We kept making small errors when we should have been out of the inning and made a couple base running mistakes.”
While errors may kill individual games in 2018, they serve as learning tools for 2019 and beyond.
“I’m really optimistic about the future because all of the guys making those mistakes are young,” Echols said. “Once we get that out of them — that’s going to come with maturity — the future is bright.”
Echols added that the Eagles are a much different team now than they were at the beginning of the season.
“We’ve grown leaps and bounds, and it’s mainly just confidence. They’re young and moving up to the high school stage, they’re starting to get more confident. They weren’t swinging the bats at all, and now they’re starting to swing some,” he said. “They’ll still freeze up with two strikes at times, but the overall growth I’m excited about it.”
With such a young roster leadership can be hard to come by, but a sophomore and a freshman who have played on the varsity level for several seasons now are taking up the mantle.
“My older guys like Devin Daniels and Vashon Sims have even had team meetings and stepped up. They try to calm the guys down and try to get them to settle. I’m excited about that,” Echols said. “I’m starting to get leaders to emerge.”
However, there is still a lot to be learned by the younger guys.
“I’ve been getting on to a couple of guys where it’s game time, and they still want to be bouncing around and playing with the kids at school that’s not playing. Just need to get their mind focused on the game. They’re young and still just happy to be out here,” Echols explained. “Some of them are in seventh or eighth-grade playing high school, so they feel like they are the big man on campus and have to be seen by everybody. I understand that, but at the same time we’re not preparing ourselves for the game. That’s the main thing I want to see with them.”
East Marion played host to Sacred Heart Tuesday, but results were unavailable at press time. They will head to Hattiesburg Friday night to play the Crusaders at 7.
Pictured Above: East Marion's Leon Andrews delivers a pitch for the Eagles. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
