The Long County Blue Tide baseball game into the week knowing they needed to bring their A-game if they were going to beat the Calvary Day Cavaliers. On Tuesday, April 1, they struggled to get much going at the plate as the Cavaliers pulled away late to win the series opener 10-1.

The Cavaliers play their home games at Grayson Stadium in Savannah but because Grayson is also home to the Savannah Bananas, who have home games this week, all three games of the series are going to be played at Fulcher Field in Ludowici. That meant the Blue Tide were the visitors at their own field in the first game of the series.

The Blue Tide took a 1-0 lead when Isaiah Miller avoided the tag on a chopper to first base, allowing Nick Sizemore to score.

Because of this, the Blue Tide played the away team in the first game Tuesday. Nick Sizemore and Creight Rogers both walked to put two on base.

The Cavaliers retired 10 straight Tide batters from the second into the fifth innings, including eight straight strikeouts.

Calvary tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth on a run-scoring double, and a sacrifice fly in the fifth put the Cavs in front 2-1.

A fly ball lost in the sun became a double and brought home another run, and a single to left helped push the lead to 4-1.

Calvary got a two-run double to cap the fifth inning and go up 6-1.

Kenny Pickens ended the Tide’s 10-batter hitless streak as he singled to open the sixth. However, the next two batters went down before Pickens was caught stealing for the final out of the inning.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth, the Cavaliers struck for four runs on a two-run single, a RBI double and a hit batter.

The Tide fell to 12-8 overall and 6-4 in region play.

They will host the Cavaliers again on Thursday, April 3 in a doubleheader to close out the regular season region play. The first game starts at 4 p.m.

The Tide will likely need to win one to preserve their top 16 ranking in the state as they look to clinch their first home state playoff series in 25 years.