Both the Fort Mill Post 43 junior and senior teams came away with wins over Lancaster Post 31 Monday, but took different paths in getting there.
Fort Mill juniors beat Lancaster 10-0 in five innings, while the seniors had to rally in the seventh for a 4-3 win.
In the junior’s game, Fort Mill was aided by a seven-run third inning to slug their way to a win. Pitcher Lane Ross pitched a complete game two hitter defensively for Post 43 to put them at 7-0 overall on the season.
“That was a huge game for Lane (Ross),” said Post 43 juniors head coach Michael Lewis. “It was a great job by him.”
Post 43 started slow in the first inning but got things going in the second inning as Chico Moreno singled to start the inning off and then was eventually driven in by Avery Childs, who went 1-2 with two RBI. Childs also drove in Luke Keller, who singled in the bottom of the second as well to reach base.
Then in the third inning, Post 43 scored seven runs on four hits and was propelled by several walks from Lancaster as well. Fort Mill batted around as Paul Solari, who also went 1-2 with two RBI, would double in the inning and Brennan Helms, who also went 1-2, would drive in two runs as well on a single in the inning. Connor Griffin also drove in a run in the inning as he went 1-2 at the plate.
The game was interrupted in the middle of the bottom half of the inning by a 30-minute lightening delay, but it never slowed down Post 43’s momentum as they finished the inning out holding a 9-0 lead.
Fort Mill would add another run in the fourth inning on an RBI single from Rylee Ashworth off the bench to give Post 43 a 10-0 lead.
“The two out single by Rylee is what win games,” Lewis said.
Post 43 juniors are scheduled to play Post 31 two more times this week. On Tuesday they are supposed to play in Lancaster, but the weather forecast may have other plans. Then they are supposed to return home Thursday at Nation Ford.
Seniors rally in the seventh
A long layoff hurt the Post 43 seniors as they came from behind down in Lancaster to get a 4-3 win and improve to 6-0.
“Going into tonight’s game I was a little concerned about not having played in six days,” said Post 43 senior head coach Tom Skula. “I knew it would take our guys a couple innings to get back into rhythm. You have to give (Chase) Debruhl a lot of credit as well for making it difficult on our hitters all night.”
Fort Mill and Lancaster each scored a run in the first and then Post 31 took a 3-1 lead in the second and held that until the sixth inning. In the sixth, Post 43 tied the game with a double by Nic Curtis, as he went 2-3 with two RBI in the game. Patrick Matthews led Fort Mill in hitting going 3-4 with two doubles. Harrison Wilson also went 2-3 in the game.
Trevor Krupke pitched five innings and struck out 12 to get the win while not allowing a hit and walking just one.
“Trevor really stepped up out of the bullpen tonight and threw well for us,” Skula said. “He commanded all of his pitches and really did an excellent job spotting his off speed. I loved the bulldog mentality tonight after he kept going after and attacking each batter.”
In the top of the seventh, Gabe Simmons got the game winning hit and went 1-2 with two RBI in the game. Post 43 is scheduled to host Lancaster Tuesday and then travel back down to the Red Rose City Thursday.
“A win like this is huge for our team,” Skula said. “When we get into a tight game later in the season, we can revert back to tonight knowing we’ve done this before. Hats off to Nic and Gabe for staying confident and engaged. “
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
