BOILING SPRINGS – The Fort Mill baseball team took advantage of timely hitting and poor fielding from the Boiling Spring Bulldogs to get a 7-0 win in the Upper State playoff bracket Thursday on the road.
The Bulldogs made six errors in the game and only managed five hits as the Jackets had another masterful pitching performance from Mathieu Curtis.
“Mathieu has been phenomenal all year,” said Fort Mill head coach Travis Collier. “He is the guy you want on the mound in big games.”
Curtis was his consistent self, getting ground outs and fly outs in between one walk and 10 strikeouts in seven innings of work.
Through the first two innings each team managed one hit, but couldn’t clear the bases to get a run.
In the top of the third, Fort Mill got two of the first three batters on with a walk to Connor Rasmussen and Dylan Schaefer getting hit by a pitch. Luke Garabedian would then walk to load the bases, but the next two Jackets’ batters would get out leaving the bases loaded without Fort Mill scoring a run.
In the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs had their biggest chance to score as they got two hits with two outs but left runners stranded on second and third.
Fort Mill finally broke through in the fourth inning scoring three runs on two hits and two back-to-back Bulldog errors. After the two errors, Jackson McKinney drove in Carter Blankenship to get a run. Rasmussen, who collected his 100th career hit in the last regular season game, then drove in Brent Laughter on a sacrifice and then Schaefer would single in McKinney to put the Jackets up 3-0.
The Jackets kept the momentum going and they took advantage again of a Bulldog error, their fourth of the game at that point. Laughter would drive in pinch runner JB Walters to give Fort Mill a 4-0 lead.
“It was a tight game in the beginning,” Collier said. “But we competed and our guys took advantage of every opportunity.”
Boiling Springs made error number five with one out in the fifth inning after Rasmussen singled and then Schaefer would reach on an error before Garabedian would hit a two RBI single plating two more Fort Mill runners. Eli Craddock would then hit a two out double to score Garabedian.
Rasmussen went 2-3 at the plate and Garabedian went 1-3 with two RBI as Fort Mill scattered eight hits in the game.
Fort Mill improved to 22-7 on the season. They will now travel to TL Hanna Saturday at 7 p.m. TL Hanna beat Blythewood 2-1 Thursday in their Upper State bracket opening game.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
