Andalusia falls at tourney in Montgomery

Published 11:54 pm Monday, March 9, 2009

It was not a winning weekend for the Andalusia Bulldogs in Montgomery at Patterson Field and Riverwalk Stadium.

The Bulldogs went 0-3 at the FCA Riverwalk tournament, losing 10-2 to St. James, 15-5 to Trinity and 8-1 to Alabama Christian Academy.

“We went up there obviously unfocused,” Andalusia coach Jonathan Rasberry said. “We got away from home and just enjoyed just being there. In baseball, you can’t just enjoy the atmosphere and we just got up there and were unfocused the whole time. I didn’t see a focused group at all.”

Rasberry said that is not how Andalusia will play baseball.

“I’ll take full responsibility for that,” he said. “I feel bad for the fans that came up there to support us and watch us play. I apologize to them and that’s not how we play baseball and that’s not how we’re going to play baseball. I don’t believe — after what I saw this weekend — that that will happen again.”

Rasberry said instead of calling it a weekend after Saturday, he had the team come back and practice to “get on the same page.”

“We practiced after the full weekend,” he said. “We had a little heart-to-heart and got after it.

“This weekend I thought we took a step back and that’s never a positive thing,” he said. “We’ve got to get more focused now, rather than relaxed. The attitude in general was to have fun and that was our goal and we didn’t succeed at that either.”

Andalusia will travel to face Straughn today in a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m.

Rasberry said his team must execute and remain focused on the game at hand.

“(Today) I think Straughn is going to come and play,” Rasberry said. “I think last week we hit the ball well and competed. We got a couple of breaks in that game and that helped us out and I think Straughn was one break away from being in control of the game. I think they are going to be ready to play.”

“It’s going to be a totally different ball game. We’re going to have to come ready to play and it’s going to be a tough game.”

Game time today is 4 p.m. at Straughn.