Off to a 1-4 start to the season after playing five games, the Lithia Springs baseball team is “not playing as well as anticipated” by head coach John Fulkerson, but they are playing hard.

“We’ve made some errors that have cost us some ball games,” said Fulkerson.

Fulkerson said his team has not been making a lot of throwing errors as his team has “a lot of good arms,” but they have been making fielding errors. These errors include trying to ground the ball, bobbling the ball in the glove, transition to the throwing hand and rushing throws unnecessarily.

The team’s strength right now, according to Fulkerson, lies in the pitching as Fulkerson said they are doing “pretty good.”

“We’ve got deep pitching, no overpowering pitchers and that forces us to play defense. No one has hit a home run on us and that’s one of two things you can’t defend; a walk and a home run,” Fulkerson said.

The Lions have five key returners this season — Dalton Carroll, Morris Ellison, Isaiah Frank, Dave Patel and Garret Voyles.

Carroll plays shortstop and is a relief pitcher for the team. Ellison plays right field and his first bat of the season was a home run against Chapel Hill. Frank is a center fielder that Fulkerson said can track down a ball anywhere and has the highest batting average on the team with .525. Patel is a second baseman and a starting pitcher while Voyles is also a starting pitcher and a third baseman.

The team just played North Paulding in game six on March 8 for their first region game of the season.

Prior to meeting the Wolfpack on the field, Fulkerson said he hoped his team would go out there and compete.

“North Paulding is always a good baseball team…If we can keep it close and have a late chance to get the win, I’ll be proud,” said Fulkerson.

This season the team has set goals of having a winning season and finishing in the top four of what Fulkerson described as a very tough region.

“There are some really good teams, so if we can make it to the playoffs, we can go deep,” Fulkerson said.