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Glynn Academy Terrorize the Tigers
Hargrove
Kentrell Hargrove (8) starts to slide safely into home plate after a wild pitch to batter Dustin Belletti (2). Despite a nice rally the Tigers could not hold on to win. - photo by By Patty Leon / Coastal Courier
The Bradwell Tigers showed some renewed stamina on the baseball field despite their 9-19 loss to the Glynn Academy Terrors Monday afternoon.
After a dismal first inning, where several walks by pitcher Dustin Belletti allowed the Glynn Academy Terrors to score 7 runs, the Tigers stiffened their defense and Belletti found the strike zone.
The Tigers allowed one run to score in the top of the second before getting three immediate outs. Getting their own hits, the Tigers brought home three runs, making it 3-8 in Glynn's favor.
The Tigers held Glynn to only two runs in the third and finished the inning by adding another run (4-10).
Belletti was starting to hit a groove on the mound and with strikeouts and good outfield catches by Daniel Materne the Tigers forced the Terrors with a three and out to start the fourth inning.
Suddenly the Tigers' bats were on fire with Kentrell Hargrove, Jeff Polk, DeAnte Day, Belletti and Trivon Williams getting on base. Hargrove used a wild pitch to steal home as the Tigers rallied for four in the fourth, making it a new ball game at 8-10.
It was becoming apparent by the top of the fifth that Belletti had reached his limits after throwing approximately 100 pitches. Glynn Academy capitalized by scoring three more runs making it 8-13.
Materne took the mound to start the sixth, but the Terrors got hits and brought in three runs. The slight rally and intensity the Tigers showed in the second through fourth inning were suddenly wiped away as the Terrors dominated, getting the Tigers in seven innings 9-19.
Tiger coach Rhett Hellgren is right. He has said on several occasions his team is better than they are playing, if they only believed it for themselves.
That was clearly evident as the Tigers tightened their defense and began to score runs. Suddenly the dugout was on their feet. They began to cheer each other on. The pitcher fed off his teammates and hit the strike zone. The outfield began to cover the infield baseman in case of wild throws. The batters were picking their pitch for the line drive or base hit Hellgren asked for. The runners stole base after base when sent. They looked like a baseball "team."
Forgotten were the walks of the first inning and the errors in the first and second. The game was back on. They were in it physically, but couldn't hold on mentally.
It took only an error and some runs scored by Glynn to quickly topple the Tigers' mindset in the fifth. It was like watching a tire deflate. Suddenly the dugout was sitting and chatting about other things, not baseball. It's the sudden mental defeat that have the Tigers at 0-8, not their playing ability.

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