With three weeks left until Opening Day, the Georgia Southern University baseball team had its first scrimmage of the year on Friday at J.I. Clements Stadium.

“It has got to be competitive. We’ve still got guys competing for starting jobs out here,” Head Coach Rodney Hennon said with regards to the importance of this scrimmage.

The exhibition match took place in a blue vs. white format with the team splitting up and playing against itself. The scrimmage lasted six innings.

Pitching against live hitting is in a completely different ballpark than simply practice pitching. It gives the players an opportunity to make on-the-go decisions that are necessary in every game.

The only thing that may be tougher than pitching against live hitting, is hitting against live pitching. The biggest part of a scrimmage like this is to get hitters used to seeing and reacting to a real pitcher.

“We were a little sloppy out here for the first day but the more pitches our hitters see, that should get better with each scrimmage,” Hennon said.

Another intrasquad scrimmage will be taking place on Sunday at 2:30. The Eagles open up the season on February 15 at home against the University of Georgia.