Friday, May 21, 2004

Landmark Christian School eliminated from Class A baseball playoffs

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Landmark Christian School’s varsity baseball team hosted Georgia Military College High School Wednesday afternoon and saw what a lot of errors can do to a team.

The War Eagles lost the first game 4-2. Kyle Gray took the mound for Landmark, while Tyler Tidwell and Tyler Chapman both lead the offense with a double a piece. Landmark only got five hits in the game and several of the runs they gave up were unearned.

“We left a lot of runners on base and were just never in the groove,” said coach Kevin Nix.

The second game was a bit worse as the War Eagles fell behind 11-1 by the third inning. Landmark rallied though and never quit, scoring six more runs in the game and only giving up one more. It was not enough though as they lost 12-7. Tidwell went 3-for-4 with a triple and Chapman went 2-for-4 with two doubles.

“We hit the cover off the ball but it was always right at somebody,” said Nix of the second game. “Georgia Military is a good team that plays well together. Once you open the door with errors and walks, they’ll bust it wide open.”

Landmark Christian will remain in 5-A next year but they will have some new competition as St. Francis, Mt. Paran and Eagle’s Landing Christian will join the region. The team graduates some senior pitching. Fourteen of their wins this year came from seniors, but they will have some experienced pitchers take the mound next year. The War Eagles will also have eight of their nine big batters returning next year and Nix feels they will be able to score a lot next year.

“We’ll be back,” Nix said, which should be a comfort to fans of Landmark baseball.