Scrimmage highlights things for Georgetown to work on
By Chris Sokoloski
csokoloski@gtowntimes.com
Georgetown High's baseball team lost 5-2 to Carolina Forest in a scrimmage, but more important than the score was the opportunity for coach Mike Johnson to evaluate his team's progress this spring.
"A good team like Carolina Forest exposed a couple of things that we've got to fix, like holding on runners a little bit better," Johnson said. "We've got to pick up our hitting a little bit better. It's the first time we've seen two good left-handers."
The Panthers scored one run in the top of the second, and then the Bulldogs came back to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth. The Panthers took the lead for good with four runs in the top of the sixth.
"Our pitching wasn't terrible tonight," Johnson said. They were OK. They were throwing strikes. We were pleased with that."
"That's supposed to be one of the best teams around and we held our own most of the game," Georgetown senior Spencer Morgan said.
Both team struggled with defensive lapses.
"We had a few little glitches in our defense," Johnson said. "In our other scrimmages we were playing just a tad better on defense than we did tonight. We only had about three errors but they were costly mistakes."
The teams played a game-type scrimmage for seven innings and then the umpires left and the coaches called balls and strikes and made calls on plays in the field. The last innings gave both coaches a chance to get some playing time for their younger players.
"We needed that and they wanted to do that to, Johnson said. "All-in-all they see tings they've got to fix and we see things we've got to fix."
Even though Georgetown lost five seniors to graduation who were key members of last year's team, the coach is optimistic.
"We got a lot of guys in last year and they got a lot of innings in," Johnson said. "We're going out to play and take our chance."
"We look pretty good," senior Mac Jordan said. "We have a couple of things to work on but other than that it should be a pretty good team."
"We've got a chance to take region," Morgan said.
2012 schedule
March 8, hosting A.C. Flora at Georgetown in the I.P. Classic, 4:15 p.m.; March 9, hosting Greenville in the I.P. Classic, 7:30 p.m.; March 10, hosting Belton-Honea Path in the I.P. Classic, 11 a.m.; March 11, hosting the I.P. Classic; March 13, hosting Socastee, 6 p.m.; March 16, at St. James, 6 p.m.; March 20, at North Myrtle Beach, 6 p.m.; March 23, at Wilson, 7 p.m.; March 25, hosting Elizabethton, Tenn., 2 p.m.; March 27, hosting Myrtle Beach, 6 p.m.; March 28, hosting Elizabethton, Tenn., 6 p.m.; March 30, at Socastee, 6 p.m.; April 3, hosting St. James, 6 p.m.; April 5, hosting North Myrtle Beach, 6 p.m.; April 7, hosting Lake Marion (DH), noon.; April 9-13, hosting the Mingo Bay Tournament; April 17, at Myrtle Beach, 6 p.m.; April 20, hosting Wilson, 7 p.m.; April 22, hosting Andrews, 3 p.m.