ANDERSON – A two-out single by Eli Craddock in the top of the eighth inning gave Fort Mill the lead they would need to upend the TL Hanna Yellow Jackets for a 4-3 win and a trip to the Upper State championship Wednesday.
The single put Fort Mill up 4-2 and Andrew Craddock came in the bottom of the inning to get the save and hold off a small rally from TL Hanna. Fort Mill will now wait to see if they play TL Hanna again on Wednesday or Blythewood. Blythewood and TL Hanna will play each other Monday to see who Fort Mill will meet Wednesday at home. Fort Mill just has to win one of possibly two games to move on to the state championship series. Fort Mill is now 23-7 on the season.
Connor Rasmussen got the start on the mound for Fort Mill and went seven and a third innings allowing three runs on five hits, while walking three and striking out five. Rasmussen threw 111 pitches and controlled the game for Fort Mill when they needed it. He also got a key RBI in the fifth inning on a fielder’s choice that gave Fort Mill the lead at 2-1.
Prior to the RBI for Rasmussen, Jackson McKinney knocked in Carter Blankenship on a sacrifice fly as Fort Mill came into the top of the fifth inning trailing 1-0, but was able to tie the game up rather quickly. TL Hanna would then tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth as that is where the two teams would sit for the next couple of innings.
Fort Mill only managed four hits in the game with no one batter getting more than one hit. They also made three errors in the field, which hurt them in the early part of the game.
Both teams threatened to win the game in the seventh inning, but couldn’t manage to get the winning run across.
Then in the top of the eighth the first two Fort Mill hitters got out before Luke Garabedian singled to get things moving for the Jackets. Scott Young was hit by a pitch and Alex Carreiro came in to pinch run for Garabedian and JB Walters came in to run for Young. That would set up Craddock’s single scoring the two runners and giving Fort Mill the lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, TL Hanna led off with a double and added a single with one out before Rasmussen would come out of the game. TL Hanna would score one run in the inning, but grounded into two fielder’s choices to end the game giving Fort Mill the win.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
