JUSTIN HALL

The Lexington County Blowfish have cooled off since their hot start to the second half of the Coastal Plain League season.

Going 1-3 last week, the Blowfish are squarely behind the 8-ball in the South Division race.

In the CPL, the regular season is divided into 2 halves.

Teams are eligible to win the division in each half, with the winner of the 1st half securing a home playoff game in the 1st round of the Pettit Cup playoffs.

Teams like the Blowfish, Wilmington Sharks and others who didn’t get off to the best start are able to hit the reset button after the month of June.

However, if the same team wins both the first and second half division crowns, the team in the division with the highest win percentage gains the final playoff spot.

“We weren’t in a good spot at the end of the first half of the season, but we’ve played better baseball in the second half,” head coach Marshall McDonald told me. “We’re still battling injuries that are causing us to shuffle our lineup, but this team has a great next man up mentality.”

Lexington County defeated Macon for their 3rd consecutive win in Middle Georgia 11-10 on July 16 before dropping their next 5 games:

•a 2-1 loss in Savannah

• an 11-6 home setback to Florence

•a 17-1 rout at home at the hands of the Forest City Owls

•a doubleheader home sweep by the scores of 3-2 and 9-0 to Florence.

The losing streak put the Blowfish last in the South Division and 2.5 games out of 1st place.

“We’re dealing with some depth issues on our pitching staff right now,” pitching coach Shawn Torbett said. “We haven’t pitched terribly, but some balls have just dropped for the opponents that are tough to handle and we just have to continue working through it.”

Lexington County, even with the losing skid entering this past Tuesday’s road game in Asheboro, is still in the thick of a very tight South Division race.

The Blowfish, at the time of print, still have matchups against the Savannah Bananas and the Macon Bacon to end the week.With just 10 games to go, McDonald remains confident in his players.

“It seems the theme of our season has been to battle through adversity,” he said. “And to this point, we’ve done a great job of rallying together and making things happen. For us, down the stretch, we need to be selfless ball players, get some timely hits, and have our pitchers give us everything they’ve got.”