Habersham Central’s baseball season is winding down to its final six games, and the Raiders have more they want to accomplish than just put another one in the win column.
At 2-18 overall and 0-12 in Region 6-AAAAAA, seventh year head coach Chris Akridge knows this season hasn’t been an easy one.
“This has certainly been a season filled with adversity,” says Akridge. “We entered the season as a young team lacking a lot of depth but with high expectations to be competitive. We had a couple of tough losses early on that I believe shook our confidence a little, and then experienced some injuries to a couple of key players which didn’t help things.”
The bright spots on the season include a pair of wins against the Chestatee War Eagles in the form of 10-1 and 3-1 victories. A couple of other games the Raiders found themselves on the short end, like a 4-3 opening loss to West Hall and a 1-0 loss to South Forsyth on March 30.
“Naturally, it is disappointing and frustrating to not meet our expectations in terms of competitiveness, but despite the adversity that we’ve experienced, our guys have continued to stay the course and work hard throughout the season,” adds Akridge.
As outlined recently on Now Habersham, the Raiders will learn and grow from this season. Outfielder Grant Belback has continued to improve his game, batting .344 on the season with a .403 OBP. Infielder Brandon Mitchell (.310/.403) has also been relied upon for his offense.
“I feel like we’ve improved in every facet of the game,” states Akridge. “We just have to put it all together at the same time, and I’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys to do that.”
Almost every team experiences this type of season at some point, but it’s the ones who continue to fight that end up coming out better than they were before.
“With adversity comes the opportunity for growth and I believe the growing pains that we’ve experienced this season will lead to success in the future,” says Akridge. “We’re looking to finish out these last two weeks of the season on a positive note playing our best baseball.”
