By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
The same areas that carried the W.S. Neal Blue Eagles baseball team to a 3-0 start were the same areas that dealt W.S. Neal its first loss Friday, a 8-5 setback at Bayside Academy.
Probaly the biggest downfall for W.S. Neal was it allowed Bayside Academy too many "free" bases through four errors, six walks and two hit batters.
"It's tough to win when you give the opposing team that many opportunities," W.S. Neal coach Coy Campbell said.
The Blue Eagles, who outscored their first three opponents 32-1, actually outhit Bayside Academy 6-4. One downside to that statistic was the Blue Eagles only got one hit from their top five spots in the batting order.
That one hit was a triple by freshman Justin Smith, who was retired for the first time all season in the first inning after 12 successful plate appearances.
The Blue Eagles took a brief 2-0 in the top of the second inning before Bayside Academy rallied with four in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead for good. It was the first of eight unanswered runs by Bayside Academy.
"If there was a positive, we still got the tying run to the plate in the sixth inning (when Bayside Academy's lead was chopped to 8-5)," Campbell said.
Chad McCall was the starting and losing pitcher with three and two-thirds innings of work although he helped himself out at the plate with three hits and two RBIs. Brandon Douglas allowed just one hit and struck out six and two and one-third innings of relief.
The Blue Eagles are off until Friday when they host T.R. Miller at 6 p.m.
At Bayside Academy
W.S. Neal 020 021 0 – 5 6 4
Bayside A. 043 100 X – 8 4 2