The Greenville High Tigers faced Escambia County in their first area match-up March 18, losing to the Blue Devils, 3-1.

The lack of batting power in the Tigers offense is what Head Baseball Coach Ward Thigpen attribute s the loss to.

&uot;Same song, different verse,&uot; Thigpen said. &uot;Once again, we had good defense and some really good pitching, but we just couldn’t hit the ball like we should.&uot;

The first inning for Greenville was three up, three down, with Andrew Hartman, Brady Newton and Brad Heartsill coming up empty with their first at bats.

The Tigers’ Leon Tetter came through with a double in the second inning, only to be left standing when the inning closed out.

GHS was scoreless until the fourth inning when Daniel Hartley was pushed around the bases to home plate by Brandon Burnette’s double in the fourth inning.

That was to be the Tigers’ only visit to home base, as the team couldn’t get its bats heated up for the remainder of the game, going three up and three down during the last three innings, with the exception of Andrew Hartman’s sacrifice fly in the fifth.

&uot;We obviously still have some things to work on,&uot; Thigpen said. But the coach still remains optimistic about his team.

&uot;We did much better in our game against J.F. Shields, so I think we will get it together for our next match-up with Escambia. They are an area team, so we need to beat them in the next go-round.&uot;