Bulldogs three-peat as Region Champions

The ECI Baseball team played the Portal Panthers Monday morning taking the game 13-3 and won their third consecutive region championship. With both teams on spring break, they moved the start time on Monday in Twin City from 4 p.m. to 11 a.m. to get the game in before incoming weather.

The second game of the two-game series was scheduled for yesterday, Tuesday, in Portal at 4 p.m.

As region champions, the Bulldogs will enter the state playoffs as the number one seed from region three and will host the number 4 seed from region 4 first round at Joe Harvey Field. More info on the two Portal games this week will be in next week’s edition of The Forest-Blade.

The Bulldogs traveled to Claxton on Tuesday, April 1, to take on the Tigers. It was a short stay as the Bulldogs shutout Claxton 15-0 in 3 innings. The game was not in doubt after the Bulldogs sent 18 batters to the plate in the first inning to jump out to a 12-0 lead. Only one Tiger runner reached base during the game. Jackson Kennedy gave up a first inning single for Claxton’s only hit.

The Bulldogs hosted the Tigers last Thursday at Joe Harvey Field and completed the sweep of Claxton with a 11-1 win. Before the game, the Bulldogs honored their four seniors in front of the home crowd. Playing their last season as an ECI Bulldog were Clayton Stripling, Kayon Thompson, James Parker and Gabe Lee. It was a much more competitive game with ECI leading 5-1 entering the fourth inning. The Bulldogs pulled away scoring 4 runs in the fourth and fifth innings to run rule the Tigers for the second time, 11-1. The seniors made the most of in on their night, accounting for 7 of the 9 hits for the Bulldogs. Gabe Lee led the senior pack with 3 hits. James Parker was right behind with 2 and Kanyon Thompson and Clayton Stripling had one hit each. James Parker held the Tigers to 3 hits with 4 strikeouts for the first 3 innings. Bryson Thompson closed out the final 2 innings, giving up no hits with 5 strikeouts.

After sweeping Claxton last week in their 2-game series, the Bulldogs entered this week with a 13-1 region record. They are currently in first place in the region ahead of Screven Co. and Metter, both with 11-3 region records.

Along with the two games against Portal this week, the Bulldogs will be hosting Savannah Christian today with a 5:30 p.m. start. The Bulldogs close out the regular season with two games for a warmup for the playoffs. Tuesday, April 15, they will host Metter. Although a region opponent, the game will not count toward region standings since they have already played their two-game series with each other. They will close out the regular season on the road in Fitzgerald to take on the Hurricanes.