You can't help but feel for the Beaufort High School baseball team, which keeps finding itself doomed by one inning, one swing or just one bad turn of events.
Ben Sauls looked very impressive from the mound Monday, striking out eight batters in 5 1/3 innings, but without any runs to complement this effort, it ultimately was for naught in a 5-0 loss to West Ashley.
Like Beaufort coach Brook Dixon told me after the game, the Eagles need to find a way to bring all three facets (pitching, offense and defense) together if they want to make up for their 0-4 start in Region 8-AAAA play.
It's not like the other teams are that much better than Beaufort, at least in my eyes. It just seems like when their opponent seizes some kind of momentum through a scored run or a Beaufort error, the Eagles have a hard time recovering. And of course it's even harder when there's no prior scoring to offset this surge or spark a late-inning rally.
The Eagles already beat Battery Creek once this season, but the Dolphins have come some way since the season-opening Sertoma Classic and are actually a game ahead of Beaufort in the region standings at 1-3. Errors are still an issue, but teams are no longer blowing out BC at a dizzying rate.
So it should be a good battle during Wednesday's rivalry game starting at 7 p.m. at Beaufort. And there might be something at stake for me.
I've seen one Beaufort win (when they beat BC) in the five or so games I've covered the Eagles this season, so Coach Dixon jokingly told me that if they win Wednesday when my esteemed colleague Buddy Hughes is doing the reporting, he's "putting in a request for Buddy to cover (Beaufort)'s games after that."
I'm not a superstitious guy, but like I told him as we shared that laugh, "Hey man, whatever it takes."
Oh and lastly, let me give a belated congrats to my fellow Tar Heels for reaching the Final Four. They look unstoppable and my belief is that if they beat Kansas (and that's no easy task), the championship is theirs.