Warner Robins baseball drops first of three against Perry in potential season-ending region series

WARNER ROBINS — The Warner Robins Demons (9-11, 4-9 Region 1-4A) have a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014, but they made it harder on themselves with a 12-1 loss in five innings to the Perry Panthers (8-13, 5-8 Region) at home on Monday.

Three observations:

Facing Connor Langdon

Junior Connor Langdon is one of if not the best pitcher in the county, and is up there in various state rankings.

It’s not often you see a high schooler top out above 90 miles per hour on their fastball, and that can throw a wrench in the average offense.

That was true for Warner Robins who finished with two hits, one of which came in the final inning.

The Demons made a lot of ill-advised swings trying to get ahold of something, and that helped Langdon in the count during his two innings on the mound. He struck out five of the six batters he faced.

“We swung at a lot of balls, we helped him out tremendously,” Demons assistant coach Parker Stahlman said. “So when he does find the zone, it makes it hard on us too when we’re behind [in the count]…So if we take a lot of pitches, I feel like it’s a lot different scenario.”

Not helping themselves on defense

Although offense was a big problem, the defense was arguably a bigger one.

Warner Robins has had at least three errors in their last three region games, including Tuesday against the Panthers. Those defensive errors are what allowed Perry to pour on four and five runs in the third and fourth innings respectively.

Only six of the 12 runs Brandon Massie gave up on the mound were earned.

The Demons are having trouble flushing those errors, which Stahlman says has to end to give themselves a chance.

“We really gotta play for the guy beside each other. We gotta dig deep and we gotta flush it,” Stahlman said. “Every play is a new play and we gotta take it one play at a time, and we definitely gotta get behind our pitchers.”

“Our pitchers are pitching their butts off and we’re definitely not helping them with the errors,” he continued. “If you go back, a lot of our runs are not earned…If we can make the play after an error rather than letting it keep bleeding and keep bleeding I feel like we’d be in a better position.”

Keeping the fighting spirit

It’s easy to mail it in after getting mercy ruled in one of your more important games of the season. The mood wasn’t great in the dugout in the final moments of the inning, but Warner Robins got some momentum going on offense before they fell.

Flushing it, like Stahlman said, and coming back Thursday to make the plays after the error that was Monday is important, especially to their two seniors.

“We only got two seniors and one of ‘em is a pitcher, so definitely we need to get behind him, play for him his last two games,” Stahlman said. “Hopefully it’s not [his last two], and I feel like if we can come in, make no errors, I think it’ll be a great ball game for those two games.”

UP NEXT

Warner Robins must win both of their games in the doubleheader against Perry to make the postseason. Those games will take place on Thursday, April 17 starting at 4 p.m.