Inman Post 45 came away from Fort Mill Wednesday night with a 4-2 win over the hometown Post 43 American Legion Senior team handing them their fourth loss on the season.
While Post 43 didn’t play bad, Inman just played that much better as they had one big inning in the third where they scored three of their four runs with the aid of a two-run home run.
Fort Mill’s Brayden Franse got the loss on the mound going four innings and allowing four runs on five hits, while striking out three and walking one.
Inman opened the game scoring in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead off two hits as they got to Franse early. Franse was able to work the minimum in the second inning, but then in the third Post 45 opened the inning with back-to-back doubles, which scored another run and then set up the two-run shot to right field.
Post 43 was able to dent the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning as Patrick Matthews led the inning off with a double and was knocked in by a single from Harrison Wilson. Matthews went 2-3 in the game and Wilson went 1-4 in the game with the RBI.
Fort Mill managed just six hits in the game and struggled with hitters four through nine in their line-up as they combined to go 0-15 with one RBI, coming from Chase Dougherty, who walked in the bottom of the seventh inning with the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the seventh, Matthews walked to lead off the inning and Wilson reached on an error. Scott Young, who went 3-4 in the game singled to load the bases, when Dougherty then walked.
Defensively, Post 43 did well except for the one bad inning as Dusty Sanderlin would relieve Franse in the fifth. Sanderlin would throw three innings to finish the game and allowed just two hits, while walking two and striking out four.
Post 43 has one more game before facing Lancaster Post 31 next week in the second round of the playoffs. Lancaster swept Buffalo in Union County to move onto the second round. Fort Mill travels to Inman Thursday night to finish their regular season schedule.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
