For the first time this season the Wallace Govs baseball team has dropped a conference series. After splitting with the Coastal Alabama East Warhawks last Thursday in Brewton, the Govs returned home today only to fall 9-7 in game one and then 8-3 in the second.

            "It was bound to happen," Wallace coach Ryan Ihle said. "We're just not playing good baseball right now. "

            The loss dropped the Govs to 13-7 in conference play. The team is now tied with Bishop State for first place in the Southern Division. The Govs also began the week ranked 19^th in the latest NJCAA baseball poll. That will likely change when the new poll is released next week.

            "We started off the season real well," Ihle said. "But we've gotten full of ourselves and how good we thought we were. It's a long season and we're a young group. Right now we've got to figure out a way to stop the bleeding."

            In the first game the Govs attempted to pull off another one of their many come-from-behind wins. But the problem was the Eagles had built too much of a lead. Despite rallying to score four runs in the bottom of the seventh, the Eagles were able to win by two runs.

            The Eagles used a combination of combination of A-B-C  baseball, solid pitching, and taking advantage of a 20 mph wind blowing toward left field.

            Wallace pitchers on the other hand, had trouble throwing strikes. Starting pitcher Christian Ford hit the very first batter of the game and that set the tone. Ford gave up two runs in the inning and didn't make it out the second.

            Three different Wallace pitchers walked seven batters and hit two others. Headed into the seventh inning, the Govs trailed 9-3. A one out double from Corey Berry got things started. The Govs scored on an RBI double from Garrett Pate, an RBI single from Ellis Yohn, and a two-RBI double from Warrick Wilmot. But the Govs could get no closer.

            The Govs took their first and only lead of the day in the top of the first inning of game two. After Wilmot reached base on a catcher's interference call, he later scored on a ground out from Brody Capps. That 1-0 lead held up until the fifth inning.

            That's when the Warhawks scored three runs on two hits and a Wallace error. The Warhawks later scored two runs in the sixth and three more in the eighth.  The Govs were only able to add two runs.

            The Govs will have a conference bye week this weekend, so the conference record will not change for two weeks. Wallace will host a three-game series against LSU-Eunice beginning Friday at noon.