On Tuesday, the Southeast Bulloch baseball team hosted the Benedictine Cadets in the first game of a 3-game series between the two teams. The Yellow Jackets were able to outlast the Cadets with a 2-1 victory.
The game went down to the wire with the deciding factor being great defense and timely hits.
The Yellow Jackets got on the board in the bottom of the 2nd when Peyton Grams hit the ball into right field and scampered to 3rd base. Grams would reach home off of a sacrifice fly ball.
Benedictine tied the game in the top of the 5th when they went on a rally of good at-bats. Karson Wheeless lived up to his name when he raced to home plate after Landon Ludwig's double.
Southeast Bulloch responded almost immediately in the bottom of the inning. Senior Trent Jones doubled to start a rally. Kyle Ruarks singled to move Jones over to 3rd and Rhett Morgan put the ball in play to bring Jones home to take back the lead.
The game came down to the top of the 7th. The Yellow Jackets made big time plays to hold off the Cadets including a fly ball that had to be tracked down to the keep the bases empty. Senior Pitcher Cade Harnage put the game away when he struck out the final hitter in dramatic fashion. The battle in the box ended with a full count and Harnage sending a laser to close the game.
Harnage talked about his mindset as the game closed. "I really just didn't want to get back to the top of the order," Harnage said. "They got a bunch of good guys at the top of the lineup, so I really wanted to finish out that inning with the 7-8-9 hitters."
SEB Head Coach Brandon Peterson talked about the win and his message to this team. "We told our guys just play good baseball," Peterson said. 'We did that tonight. Cade was outstanding on the mound, we played good defense and had a little timely hitting."
Peterson spoke on the low-scoring affair that they played on Tuesday. "There's a lot of different ways to win games and against a good quality team like Benedictine, it is always going to be tough."
The Yellow Jackets improve to 4-4 on the season.
Up Next
SEB will go on the road to face the Cadets again on Thursday before coming back to Brooklet for the series finale on Friday.
