USJ baseball 3-for-3 against Harding Academy
LA VERGNE — Any coach will say that beating a team three times is always tough.
But every time that the University School of Jackson baseball team plays in the Division II-A state tournament this week, it will be a third time seeing a team.
On Tuesday, the Bruins faced Harding Academy for the third time in the opening round of the tournament.
And for the third time this season, USJ came away with a win. This time it was 2-1.
“It is hard enough to beat a regular, average team three times, but when you play a team of their caliber, it just gets harder every time,” USJ coach Jack Peel said. “The first game, we 10-run ruled them, and you can throw that one out the window. The second one was a one-run win when we came from behind.”
This is the second time that Charlie Darnall has started a game this season against Harding Academy, and both times have ended in no decisions.
“It is difficult because they can learn your strategies and how you play,” Darnall said. “We just try to come out and play our game and make as few mistakes as we can.”
RELATED: 20 Jackson area athletes to watch at Spring Fling
Tuesday was the first time that Nathan Ruble had pitched for Harding Academy, so there is a variance of what the USJ hitters were seeing.
“It is an advantage and a disadvantage seeing them for a third time,” Rhett Peel said. “Every time we see them, they have a different guy that does a better job on the mound.
“He was better at locating his pitches and had a good curveball.”
Rhett Peel had the game-winning sacrifice fly to win the game in the fifth inning.
So Darnall seemed to have a confidence about him when he took the mound facing the Lions for the third time.
“We just had to settle in and throw strikes,” Darnall said. “We have great coaches, and they know how each of the batters hit, so we use that to our advantage and throw what they can’t hit.”
And how well these teams knew each other showed as the two teams combined for five combined hits.
“It’s like during football season when we saw BGA and beat them in the regular season, but it is hard to beat a good team multiple times,” Rhett Peel said.
The key for a young Bruins this season has been worrying about themselves and controlling what they can control.
“We really don’t worry who is in the other dugout,” Jack Peel said. “We just worry about us. We do really well when we try to be us. We put the ball in play, make good baserunning decisions, use our speed and play defense, we normally will come out on top.”
Reach Michael Odom at michodom@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9754. Follow him on Twitter @JSWriterMichael.