The Thunderbirds were happy to take in some fresh air on Wednesday.

North Callaway at South Callaway Photo Gallery

North Callaway baseball played its first game after having to postpone its season for about a week with several postponements, including its game at South Callaway that was initially scheduled for last Saturday. The Thunderbirds lost 12-4 to the Bulldogs, allowing runs in every inning except one.

Head coach Zeth Lavy said he and the team doesn’t want to make excuses, but their first game looked like their first game. North Callaway (0-1) committed six errors and was shaky on defense while South Callaway (3-0) was formidable at the plate in its third game of the season.

“It’s awesome to be outside on a baseball field and get out of that stinkin’ gym, that’s for sure,” Lavy said. “We kind of looked like it was our first outing this year. Routine plays (were an issue). Six official errors and at least two plays I can think of where we had a guy dead out, and we’d either throw it wide or don’t quite make the tag.”

Lavy said Monday could’ve been the team’s season and home opener, but the field wasn’t ready for play against Fulton due to thawing from frozen conditions the night before. After the Thunderbirds scored three runs in the first inning, South Callaway proved its offense was thawed out.

Two errant North Callaway throws gave the two Bulldogs who led off the inning with hits the chance to score until Tucker Jones gave the Bulldogs the 4-3 lead with a double. That was one of several South Callaway run-scoring hits that happened either on the first pitch or on a 3-2 count. The Bulldog hitters looked to be in control in various hitting situations.

“(Head coach) Heath (Lepper) does a great job of getting those guys to adopt the right approach he wants them to have,” Lavy said. “You hear him say all the time, ‘Your first two swings are for you and then the third swing is for the team.’ I thought they did a good job of adjusting with two strikes, and there was nothing easy on our pitchers all day."

North Callaway used three pitchers in the game as last year’s best starting pitcher Davis Woods struggled in one inning, allowing four hits and a walk, before being removed. Keaton Bell lasted four innings, surrendering four earned runs on seven hits, before Sam Pezold had two unearned runs scored against him in one inning.

Lavy said Woods was removed because he felt the pace needed to be quicker and the defense had to more alert.

“Davis probably will tell you he wishes he would’ve started off a little faster,” Lavy said. “He was struggling location-wise, and the pace of the game was pretty slow and weren’t just on our toes defensively. We went to a polar opposite guy in Keaton who is a guy that just gets up there on the bump and comes at you.”

While North Callaway hadn’t experienced regular season action yet, it did play some jamboree games on South Callaway’s field last week. Comparing the offense’s performance then to Wednesday, Lavy said the Thunderbirds were better in that department.

Dane Daugherty did settle down to retire seven straight batters at one point and combined with Ryan Lepper to strike out seven, but North Callaway jumped on him early. Braydn O’Neal crushed an RBI double within two pitches prior to Davis Woods and Carter Moore tacking on runs about as early in their at-bats. Weber also smacked the second pitch of an at-bat to the gap in fourth inning for a double to cut the deficit to 5-4 at the time.

“At the jamboree hare, we were slow offensively,” Lavy said. “It was nice having guys be aggressive and get some baserunners moving early on in the game.”

The Thunderbirds defeated Hallsville 8-6 on Thursday night at home, scoring seven runs in the fourth inning to give the Class 4 Indians (2-1) their first loss. Jordan Fishburn was 2-3 with three RBI and two doubles, and AJ Haubner allowed four runs on two hits in 5 1/3 innings.

North Callaway is scheduled to host California (0-1) at 5 p.m. Monday.