Cavs' big sixth costs Mustangs in 12-7 loss

Cavs Baseball-Winning Way's continue

By Corey Dickstein
GUYTON - South Effingham head baseball coach Ron Womack said Thursday was a different day with the same story.

For the third time in three games, the Mustangs took an early lead but squandered it late in the game.

"We've had the lead in all three games," Womack said. "If we could stop it at five (innings), we'd be pretty good."

Thursday night at The Corral, three sixth-inning errors cost South Effingham a chance to win the ball game.

After Calvary's Skyler Strickland hit a one-out single into right field, the Mustangs made their first two errors of the inning in back-to-back fashion.

The second error, a ball thrown wide of first baseman Nick Owens' reach, plated Strickland and Ashley Morris to give the Cavaliers an 8-7 lead.

But the damage wasn't finished.

Pitcher Jake Odom walked Joey Lupus before giving up back-to-back RBI singles that gave Calvary a 10-7 lead.

The Cavaliers added a pair of runs in the seventh to finish the scoring at 12-7.

"We're making big mistakes at big times," Womack said. "If you look at all our errors, every one of them came with runners on base."

South Effingham did muster eight hits in the game.

Tyler Dodd went 2-3, including a double into left-center field in the first and an RBI single over the shortstop's head in the fourth that plated Dylan Griffin.

Owens knocked in the Mustangs' first two runs of the game with a first-inning single that plated Jake Youmans and Spencer Harvey.

He followed that with a double to left-center in the third that scored Spencer and blasted a leadoff homer in the fourth to give the Mustangs a 7-6 lead.

Owens "has stepped up big for us this year, so far," Womack said. "He's a senior and he's a great leader, and we've gotta keep him going."

Womack said his team has to keep working hard in practice to correct its fielding blunders.

"All we can do is go to work tomorrow and try to fix our mistakes," he said.

CDS 020 134 2- 12 9 2

SE 211 210 0-- 7 8 4

W-Ty Bashlor (1-0) L-Jake Odom (0-1)

Leading hitters-Ross Howard 2-5, 4 RBIs; Skyler Strickland 2-4, 2B, Ashley Morris 2-4 2B, RBI, Ty Bashlor 1-4, HR, Mark Eichenlaub 1-4, HR, 2 RBI. SE, Tyler Dodd 2-3, Nick Owens 3-4, 4 RBIs, HR, 2B.

Record-SE 0-3 overall, CD 2-1.