The Fort Dale Eagles were off to a strong playoff debut with a 6-0 lead on the road against Hooper Academy in their first of three games.

But a disastrous late inning once again cost the Eagles their momentum and, ultimately, a trip to the second round.

Fort Dale Academy head baseball coach Josh Beverly said that it was smooth sailing in the first game until the sixth inning, when several errors and a pitching change halted the Eagles’ momentum in its tracks.

“You win that first game, and then all of the pressure is on them, but then the wheels fell off,” Beverly said.

“We walked a couple of guys and had another error, and then they finally got a couple of hits.  Then you look up, and it’s 7-7.  Then they scored a run in the bottom of the seventh and ended up winning 8-7.”

With the tough loss still fresh on their minds, the Eagles redoubled their defensive efforts in the second game of the afternoon, but the Colts found a chink in the Fort Dale armor and scored a handful of runs.

Solid pitching kept the Eagles off base and cemented the 3-0 win for the Colts.

“We hit the ball, but we hit it right at them,” Beverly said.

“They had a really good pitcher on the mound, and he kind of carved us up.”

Despite the frustrating end to the season, Beverly said there were several highlights along the way.  Chief among those were contributions from his senior players.

“We have probably two of the best players in the state in Drake Cabe and Ryan Burkett,” Beverly said.

“Drake hit .600 this year, and Ryan hit .432 and was struck out four times all year, and Drake was only struck out three times all year.  That’s 100 plate appearances apiece.

“And Ryan was our best pitcher on the mound, and he gave us a chance to win every time we went out there, and that’s all you can ask for.  All of the seniors are good kids. Ryan was our leader and Drake led by example, and both of them kept us going and they’re going to be missed a lot.”