Decatur baseball comes up short on road

DECATUR -- The Decatur Bulldog baseball team went on the road to take on two opponents.

The Bulldogs first traveled south of Ft. Smith March 20 to take on the Hackett Hornets.

According to high school baseball rules, the games are limited to a five-inning set. However, with enough daylight left, the Hackett and Decatur coaching staff decided to play a doubleheader.

In game one, Decatur kept pace with Hackett, allowing only one run through the third inning. However, a series of mental errors coupled with simple fielding mistakes allowed the Hornets to put points on the scoreboard. The Hornets built an 8-run lead going into the final out, effectively shutting down the Bulldogs' hitting. The final score of game one was 8 to 0.

Game two was much the same. Hackett continued to hit against Decatur while cutting off the Bulldogs' hitting. The final score was 10 to 0 in favor of Hackett.

"We just keep making silly little mistakes that cost us the game," Coach Jason Porter said. "We will go back and work on our fielding and hitting to prepare for the next game."

The Bulldogs next traveled east of Fayetteville to play the Elkins Elks for another doubleheader.

In the first game, Decatur was plagued with the same problems as in the Hackett game. They simply could not get runners across the plate. The final was 15 to 0, Elkins.

Decatur looked a little better in the second game. They managed to get two runners across home plate. However, on defense the Bulldogs allowed the Elks to score eight times. The final was 8 to 2.

With Decatur going to school during spring break to make up for the lost snow day this year, Porter and his team will have a chance to work out the bugs in their game. Since they have an open-scheduled spring break, they have the entire week to prepare for their next game.

The Decatur Bulldog baseball team will play its first home game against the Mountainburg Dragons on March 31, at 4 p.m., at Edmiston Park in Decatur. They will play JC Westside at Edmiston Park the following night, on April 1, at 4 p.m.

For the complete baseball schedule go to www.decatursd.com/athletic.

Sports on 03/26/2014