The Buford Post 31 Jackets junior legion team swept the League V leaders in Fort Mill Post 43 taking both games of a doubleheader Tuesday.
Buford won 12-2 in game one and then took game two 1-0 over Fort Mill as the Post 43 juniors dropped to 7-3 overall. Fort Mill now has a one game lead with two games left in league play.
The first game wasn’t pretty for Post 43 as they managed five hits, but gave up five hits and made just as many errors. Buford had just five hits, but Post 43 walked eight batters on top of making having five errors.
“We gave up 17 free bases between errors, walks and hitting batters,” said Post 43 head coach Michael Lewis. “You aren’t going to win many games doing that.”
Buford had their best inning of game one scoring four runs on two Post 43 errors and three Jacket hits coming in the top of the first.
Post 31 added another run in the third inning and three more in the top of the fourth before Post 43 got its first run in the bottom of the fourth. In the bottom of the fourth, Reid Kazmierczak led the inning off with a single and Brayden Hampton also singled before game one starter Brody Owens would drive in the first run of the game for Fort Mill on a sacrifice fly.
Buford would continue to get on base taking advantage of Fort Mill pitching as they would score a run in the top of the fifth inning. For Fort Mill, Killion Bennett led the fifth inning off with a double and Grey Kneidel would double in Bennett to give Post 43 their second run of the game.
Post 31 closed out the game in the sixth inning scoring three runs off one hit and took advantage of another Fort Mill error.
In game two, Fort Mill played better and didn’t make an error and out hit Buford, but it was Post 31 that squeezed out a run to get the win. Kneidel would pitch well for Post 43 going five innings and allowing just two hits and the run, while walking two and striking out four.
Post 43 got one hit per inning of play as Bennett led them at the plate going 2-2 in the game. In the third inning, Buford got a runner on with two outs by a walk and its first hit of the game drove in the only run of the game later in the inning.
“Grey threw a phenomenal game,” Lewis said. “We have got to get better at the plate.”
Having dropped the doubleheader, Fort Mill has put themselves in a tough position in the standings needing to get wins to capture the League V title.
The Post 43 juniors travel to Lancaster Wednesday and will host Rock Hill at home at Nation Ford High School Thursday.
Seniors sweep doubleheader at Chester
The Post 43 senior team improved to 5-7-1 overall on the season with a sweep of a doubleheader against Chester Post 27 Tuesday on the road.
Fort Mill won game one 8-0 and game two 10-0 as they played flawless in the field without making an error in both games and had a total of 17 hits between the two games.
Post 43 was led at the plate in game one by Eli Craddock, who went 2-3 and Scott Young, who drove in two runs. Dusty Sanderlin pitched six innings and allowed just two hits while striking out seven and walking two.
In game two, Post 43 was led by Greyson Wild on the mound, who struck out 11 batters in five innings of work. At the plate, Young went 2-3 with an RBI and Alex Steckler went 1-2 with three RBI.
Fort Mill will host Lancaster Post 31 Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Catawba Ridge High.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
