LaFayette loses doubleheader to Horseshoe Bend on Friday night
Published 10:08 pm Friday, March 8, 2019
LaFAYETTE — Horseshoe Bend swept the LaFayette baseball team (1-3, 0-3) in a doubleheader on Friday night.
The Bulldogs lost game one 9-0. Senior JaQuavian Boston-Gaines gave LaFayette a chance to get on board in the bottom of the seventh inning with his base running. He ended the game on third base.
“In the first game, I thought we did a good job of hitting the ball, we just couldn’t get the ball to drop where we wanted to and make some plays,” LaFayette head baseball coach Micheal Pattillo said. “Defense played outstanding.”
In both games on Friday, Pattillo said that he was impressed by the Bulldogs’ ability to make contact at the plate. He said that the entire batting lineup can improve later in the season by laying off on the aggression at the plate, and sitting back more on opposing team’s pitches.
Game one was also the first time in Pattillo’s coaching tenure at LaFayette where the Bulldogs completed a full seven-inning game against Horseshoe Bend.
“To be able to go a full seven innings, I think that was an outstanding performance by our guys,” Pattillo said.
The Bulldogs lost game two 13-0. Horseshoe Bend scored a steady pace of runs to begin the game, before cracking the game open at the top of the second inning with a 3-run home run to secure the final scores of the night.
After the home run, LaFayette made a pitching change to freshman Chandler Winston, who gave up no runs to close out the second and third innings. It was Winston’s varsity debut.
“He’s going to be okay,” Pattillo said. “He had to get a few batters behind him before he decided ‘oh, I can do this.’ We’re going to give him some more reps, and he’s going to be fine.”
The Bulldogs return home on March 12 to host Wadley.
“[I look for us] to get in practice and get better hitting the ball, and putting it in play,” Patillo said. “If we do that, then I think we’ll be fine because the defense during that first game was outstanding. They scored four runs in the first inning, and then it was another couple of innings before they started scoring anymore. We really did a good job on defense. If we can get going with our defense, then we should be alright.”