In front of a packed house Saturday in Brewton in their season opener against the Central Alabama Trojans, the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk baseball team earned a split to start the season 1-1.
In game one, JDCC suffered a 10-6 loss to start the season 0-1. In game two, behind local and former W.S. Neal baseball player Tyler Joyner, the Warhawks regrouped with a 2-0 win.
JDCC head coach Darrell Blevins said he and his team were pleased to get started and were all anxious to throw the first pitch and get things going Saturday.
“I thought we played 13 out of 14 innings pretty strong today,” Blevins said Saturday of the two seven innings games against CACC. “I am proud of the kids because they could have lost their intensity in game one. I don’t think they gave up at all.”
In game one, JDCC fell behind CACC 1-0 after one inning before giving up five runs in the second inning to fall behind 6-0.
The Warhawks regrouped with a three-run second inning to cut the lead to 6-3 heading into the third inning. From there, CACC added one run in the third and two in the fifth inning to take a 9-3 lead over the Warhawks. JDCC would get two in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 9-5. Both teams plated one run each in the seventh inning as the Warhawks took the loss by four runs.
“Garrett (Davis) struggled a little bit in the second inning with us kicking those two ground balls,” Blevins said. “That hurt. Other than that, I think everything else was pretty much positive. I felt like our pitchers pretty much throughout the day did what we asked them to do. We are going to have to hit more line drives and ground balls than the fly balls that we hit. I am glad to get out of here with a split on day one. CVCC is a pretty good team. We just need to go from here and make the adjustments.”
Davis took the loss on the mound in game one as he went two innings and allowed seven hits, six runs, one earned, walked one and struck out none.
Nick Boswell, Matthew Gillis and Taylor Baynes also pitched in the loss. Overall, the quartet of pitchers allowed 14 hits, 10 runs, five earned, walked two and struck out one.
At the plate, Craig Headley, John-Mark Cosby, Brandon Bilek, Brandon Davis, Brandon Goins, and Heath Young all had hits.
Bilek and Davis both had a double each in the loss. Headley, Davis and Goins all had one RBI each.
In game two, Joyner earned the win on the mound for the Warhawks as he went three innings and allowed three hits, no runs, walked one and struck out four.
Riley Hodge went the final four innings and allowed three hits, no runs, no walks and struck out five.
Blevins said he thought Joyner did a good job in his first collegiate start.
“I thought he did good,” Blevins said. “He is just a joy to be around every day. The way he pursues the game and gets after the game, that is why we do what we do. He is doing it right. He has pitched well ever since the day he walked in here. Hopefully he will continue to do that through the entire season. He is going to be really good for us before it is all said and done with.”
Joyner said his first collegiate start and win was exciting.
“I just did what I normally do,” Joyner said. “I just threw my curve ball a lot and let my defense behind me work. That is pretty much it. I just let them work. They are some good players and they got some runs and we went with it.”
JDCC led CACC 1-0 after one inning and carried that lead until the sixth inning when they scored their other lone run of the game to get the two-run win.
At the plate, Dake Rivers and Cosby led the Warhawks in the win as both went 2-for-3. Rivers had both two RBIs in the win.