Effingham County High School

Big inning lifts Rebels to third straight

Screven County High School at Effingham County High School

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One extended rally helped lift the Effingham County Rebels baseball team to its third straight win.

The Rebels scored eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, erasing a four-run deficit en route to a 9-8 victory over Screven County on Tuesday night. The win allowed Effingham to even its record at 4-4.

Effingham had stranded six runners, three in scoring position, through the first four innings and trailed 4-0 before erupting in the fifth. Josh Brant led off the rally with a triple to center field, and Matt Rahn jumpstarted the comeback with a towering three-run homer to right, his third of the season.

“Matt’s home run helped us,” Rebels coach Brett Griffin said. “It was starting to get late.”

Darren Driggers followed with a single to center, and the Gamecocks pulled starting pitcher Jonathan Long.

“He did a good job of throwing us more than one or two pitches,” Griffin said of Long. “He showed us a good curveball, and we struggled with him. His pitch count was up, and we’ve got to be able to get their starting pitcher out.”

With runners on first and second and one out, the Rebels pulled off a double steal, and Brandon Stevenson followed with a two-run single to left. Justin Rogers beat out a bunt single, and Cal Baker squeezed home a run for a 6-4 lead.

After Brant drew a two-out walk, Austin Denney doubled in two more runs.

Screven, though, answered with three runs in the sixth. Austin Peel’s groundout brought in one run, and two more runs scored on an error, one of three errors in the game for the Rebels.

The Gamecocks scored three unearned runs and Rebels pitchers walked nine batters. Four of those batters who received free passes to first eventually scored.

“We will not keep finding ways to win when we walk nine people,” Griffin said. “If we don’t fix that problem, we’re going to struggle. We can be decent at times. But when we start walking people and making errors, we start backing ourselves in a corner.”

Stevenson’s sacrifice fly to right pushed the lead to 9-7 and that run loomed large in the seventh. Stevenson fielded a comebacker to the mound to start a double play, one of two turned by the Rebels on the night. But a pair of two-out walks preceded Dayton Mills’ run-scoring double to left.

Denney came on to get the save, getting Long looking for the final out.

Mills went 2-for-3 with four RBIs for the Gamecocks, and Peel drove in two runs. Stevenson went 2-for-3 and knocked in three runs, while Rogers went 2-for-4.

Effingham will host Brunswick today at 6 p.m. and will host Pierce County on Saturday at 5 p.m.