The Fort Dale baseball team stayed close with Lee-Scott for seven innings, but things fell apart in the eighth and the Warriors won 5-1 on Saturday.

The Eagles won the first meeting between the two teams, and the rematch was a key region game for both squads.

Lee-Scott put the first run of the game on the board in the top of the third inning, and the Eagles came close to scoring in the bottom half of the third.

Stephen Till had a leadoff double, and he was bunted to third by Kendall Gibson. The next hit was a slow-rolling infield ground ball, and Till was thrown out at home plate.

Fort Dale threatened again in the fourth inning but almost squandered the opportunity.

The Eagles loaded the bases with no outs, but no runs came home until there were two outs, when Gibson drew a walk to bring in Todd Burkett.

The game remained tied until the top of the eighth inning, when Lee-Scott exploded for four runs. Two runs came on wild pitches and passed balls, while an errant throw on a bunt brought in two more runs.

Head coach Josh Beverly said that his team needs to break out of its offensive slump.

“We should win games that are 1-1 when you’ve got someone pitching his heart out, but we were just snake-bit on offense. Our one RBI came on a walk,” he said. “We just can’t find a hit with someone on base.”

The loss to LSA means that the Eagles will have to buckle down for the rest of region play.

“We’ve got to win a lot, and soon,” Beverly said. “We need to find a way to beat Pike, and I believe we can. We also have to beat Hooper and Taylor Road.”

The Eagles are now 10-7 overall with a region record of 2-5.

“We’ve got to take care of business,” he added.