Another back-and-forth game ended in Fort Mill Post 43’s favor as they upended Matthews Post 235 Friday night.
Fort Mill Post 43 beat Matthews 12-7 and are now 2-2 overall on the season. Both teams combined for 23 hits and five errors in the game.
Matthews came out hot early, but it was Post 43 that was able to turn up the heat later in the game.
Matthews scored in the top of the first with Fort Mill coming back in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead. Scott Young drove in Eli Craddock on a sacrifice fly to score the first run of the game for Post 43 in the inning and Nico Bartolotti scored on a wild pitch to give them the lead.
Matthews had their best inning of the game in the second scoring four runs on five hits off starter Blake Sanders.
Lane Ross came in and pitched two and a third innings as Fort Mill rallied and scored three runs in the third inning to tie the game at 5-5. Post 43 had five consecutive hits in the third inning with RBI singles from Zach Jennings, Jonathan Barschow and a double from Jaeger Pankowski.
Matthews went up 6-5 in the fifth, but Post 43 again rallied and scored three runs in the bottom of the inning. Craddock hit a two-run triple to score Nick Krise and Sam Czyz giving Fort Mill an 8-6 lead.
Matthews again closed the gap to just one run in the sixth, but Post 43 had their biggest inning yet scoring four in the sixth inning. Young started the bottom half of the inning off with a double, followed by a sacrifice from Pankowski and a Krise bunt into fielder’s choice scoring Jennings, who walked earlier in the inning. Gabe Simmons would then hit a two-run single scoring both Barschow and Drew Brink.
Bartolotti, Young and Barschow all had three hits in the game to lead Post 43 at the plate. Both Pankowski and Simmons each had two RBIs in the game.
On the mound, Post 43 used six pitchers with Jacob Iverson getting with win in one-third of an inning pitched. Besides Iverson, Ross struck out four of the eight batters he faced and allowed just one hit. Miles Corcoran pitched an inning as well and struck out three to close the game out. Post 43 pitching struck out 11 batters and only walked five.
Post 43 has an important three game series next week against Rock Hill Post 34 starting Monday, June 12 at home. They will then travel to Rock Hill Tuesday, June 13 and then play at home again Wednesday, June 14.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
