by RON WEATHERFORD<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs will host the first round of the state playoffs today at Joe Harvey Field. The No. 1-seeded Bulldogs will face No. 4 seed GSIC of Hephzibah, representing Region 5. The playoffs follow the usual best-of-three format, with a doubleheader scheduled for the first day and an if-necessary game to be played the following day. The winner of the ECI\u2013GSIC series will advance to face the winner of the Taylor County vs. Clinch County matchup in the second round. ECI would host that second-round series, while GSIC would travel to the opposing site if they advance. The Bulldogs and Patriots are set to play a doubleheader this afternoon (Wednesday), with the first game scheduled for 3 p.m. and the second game 30 minutes after completion of opening game.<\/p>\n
ECI played three games last week to stay sharp heading into the playoffs, including matchups against two playoff teams. Metter enters the postseason as the No. 2 seed from Region 3, while Bleckley County is the Class A Division I Region 2 champion. The Bulldogs also traveled to Statesboro to face the Blue Devils.<\/p>\n
In their first game of the week, ECI hosted Metter and sent the Tigers back down Highway 23 with a 10-1 loss. Bryson Thompson got the Bulldogs on the board early, blasting his fourth home run of the season over the left-field fence to give ECI a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Bulldogs continued to apply pressure, scoring in five consecutive innings to secure the win. Metter\u2019s only run came on a sixth-inning home run.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs came up short against Statesboro on Wednesday. The Blue Devils scored in just two innings, putting up four runs in both the second and fifth frames. Trailing 8-1, ECI rallied for four runs in the seventh inning but ultimately fell 8-5. Jud Underwood led the offense with three hits, including a triple, while Davis Johnson added two hits. Starter Jackson Kennedy, along with relievers Johnson and Tuff Boddiford, limited Statesboro to seven hits and recorded seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n
ECI returned home Thursday to face Bleckley County. The Royals scored six runs in the second inning and added six more across the sixth and seventh innings to take a 12-2 victory. The Bulldogs tallied eight hits in the game, with Tuff Boddiford leading the way with two. Jud Underwood drove in two runs, highlighted by a third-inning home run.<\/p>\n
In other Region 3 vs. Region 5 matchups, Johnson County will travel to Metter, Glascock County will host Screven County, and Bryan County will travel to Milledgeville to take on GMC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by RON WEATHERFORD The Bulldogs will host the first round of the state playoffs today at Joe Harvey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2328,2304,4,2305,2303],"class_list":{"0":"post-681046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-playoffs","13":"tag-mlb-postseason"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116448535750735573","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}