This past week, the Long County baseball team went 1-1 in region competition, beating McIntosh County Academy but falling to Benedictine Military School.

The Blue Tide took on McIntosh County at home March 11. Though the Buccaneers played hard, Long County methodically hammered out runs in the third, fourth, fifth and seventh innings en route to a 7-1 victory. The Blue Tide outperformed the Buccaneers at the plate, eight hits to four.
On Tuesday, the Blue Tide were also at home taking on always-tough Benedictine. The Cadets jumped out to an 11-0 lead and never looked back in notching a 17-5 win.

Tripp Stapleton got the start and loss for Long County going 2-1/3 innings. He gave up 10 runs, of which five were earned, walking six batters and allowing three hits. He struck out one. Andrew Swindell closed out the game for the Tide, going 4-2/3 innings. While on the mound, Swindell gave upsix hits, five walks and seven runs, of which five were earned. He struck out four batters.

The leading batters for the Blue Tide were Ryan Desbiens and Josh Gordon, who each went 2 for 3 at the plate. Long County head coach Tyler Rogers was asked what he felt the difference in the game was.
“They threw strikes and took the walks we gave them, then took advantage of them with big hits,” he said.

Though Rogers was disappointed with the outcome, he said there were areas in which he felt his team played well.
“I thought we actually hit pretty well against BC,” he said. “They had nine hits, and we had seven. The only difference was, they had runners on base when they hit because we put them on with walks.”

After the two games, Long County now has an 8-6 overall record and a 4-2 mark in Region 2-AA. On Tuesday, the Blue Tide will be back at home, this time taking on Vidalia in another important region game. The Indians are 5-5 overall and 2-0 in the region. The game is scheduled to start at 5 p.m.