MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Playing at home, the Baldwin baseball team took one game out of two Tuesday, overpowering Dublin 15-8 before falling 13-3 in a Region 3-AAAA contest with Thomson. The Braves moved to 12-10-2 on the season and 2-4 in region play.

Head coach William Emadi said his team showed marked improvement at the plate after losing to Dublin 6-2 Feb. 23 and failing to notch a hit against Thomson in a 10-0 loss March 17.

After a 3-3 first inning with Dublin, the Braves added three more in the second for a lead that would hold the remainder of the game. The floodgates were opened and Baldwin crossed 15 on 11 hits. Donte Justice came through on the mound, surrendering five runs on five hits in five innings pitched for the win. Jordan Rouse threw the final two innings.

“He (Justice) threw five good innings, gave us an opportunity to win. Jordan came in to close,” Emadi said. “We hit, we executed behind them; we played good defense. It was an all around great game.”

Eight of nine in the Baldwin lineup put up hits in the game. Jordan Rouse, C.J. Hurst and Brett Bass all had multiple hits against Dublin and Victor Hill tallied four RBIs off of a second-inning home run and a sacrifice fly in the fourth. The Braves committed just two errors in the field, as they split with Dublin 1-1 for the season.

“I’m friends with the coach, he’s a good guy,” Emadi said, hinting at an emerging friendly rivalry. “We’ll see what happens next year.”

Brett Bass got the nod against Thomson and, retiring three straight to start the game, setting the Braves up to take an early 1-0 lead. But a big second inning for the Bulldogs all but put the game out of reach. Bass nearly pitched out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam when Rouse caught a line drive and stepped on third for a double play. But when the next batter grounded to Davis at shortstop, a controversial call at first kept the inning going. Thomson had seven hits for six runs in the inning, taking control of momentum.

“Bases loaded, two outs … call I don’t think is correct that extends the inning. We fell apart from there,” Emadi said.

The Braves scattered seven hits in the game, but were unable to contest the lead. The game ended early with Baldwin trailing 10 runs after six innings.

“We have to be more mentally tough, but tip your hat to Thomson. They out-executed us in every facet of the game,” Emadi said.

Baldwin’s next challenge will be Burke County, which currently holds the top spot in Region 3-AAAA with a 6-1 record. The Braves put up just four hits against the Bears in a 5-2 loss March 21.

“They’re a good ball club. They’re very sound,” Emadi said. “We proved that we can play with them, we just have to hit a little bit better. If we come out and we execute offensively, it should be a good game.”

First pitch will be 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Burke County High School baseball field.