It’s safe to say it has been a roller coaster season for the Escambia County Blue Devils’ baseball team.

After stumbling out of the gate to the tune of a 1-3 start, the Blue Devils won three straight to move to 4-3 and improved that to 6-4 before spring break. Since the break ECHS has dropped three in a row, all to No. 6-ranked area foe UMS-Wright.

The Blue Devils lost 16-2 and 8-3 to the Bulldogs in a doubleheader Friday in Mobile.
David Johnson scored an RBI, while Jason Davis and Tyler Sanspree scored both runs in the loss.

The second game of the doubleheader went much better for ECHS. The Blue Devils found themselves only down two at 5-3 in the top of the sixth before the Bulldogs scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning to win.

Malcolm Black started, but was relieved by Nytorious Cooler after three innings.
Black, Eric Williams, A.J. Matthews all had RBIs in the loss.

“I try not to accept moral victories because it means you’re OK with losing,” coach Gavin King said in the last game of the doubleheader. “We came out in the third game and played our best and competed the most after losing two straight games.”

King said there were parts of games one and three against the Bulldogs where his team was able to be competitive in later innings.

“We never played mistake-free ball in any of the games and UMS doesn’t commit many errors,” he said. “At least when we played sound baseball we competed with them.
It showed we have a lot of work to do if we want to compete with one of the top teams in the state,” King added. “I think it’s possible. We’re not that far away.”

King would like to see his team pick up 10 wins this season. The Blue Devils already have more wins this season then in the last two combined.

ECHS has 10 games left on its schedule; three against Thomasville, two against Clarke County, two against Vigor and two against Hillcrest.

“If we can put a good two weeks together we could get 10 wins,” he said. “I’m greedy. I want us to squeeze out 10 wins this season.”