SUMTER – Another game, another Fort Mill Post 43 blowout win Monday as the Juniors advanced to the American Legion Junior State Tournament semifinals with a 14-3 win over West Florence.
Fort Mill will now play Hartsville Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the semifinals, as West Florence and Mid-Carolina play in an elimination game today. Based on the brackets, Fort Mill, because they haven’t lost in the double-elimination tournament automatically makes the state finals Wednesday, even if they fall to Hartsville.
Post 43 pounded out 18 hits in the game as seven of their nine hitters had multiple hits including Rylee Ashworth, who went 3-3 with three RBI and Paul Solari who went 4-4 with five RBI.
“I am proud of the guys,” said Fort Mill Post 43 head coach Michael Lewis. “We jumped out quick and anytime you score first and last, it’s good.”
Fort Mill jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first inning off six consecutive hits in the innings. Luke Keller doubled as the second batter of the game and was followed by singles from Solari, Ashworth, Lane Ross, Avery Childs, and Connor Griffin.
Post 43 added hits in the second and third, but had mellow approaches at the plate in those innings comparatively. Fort Mill then put-up back-to-back innings of four runs in both the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, Carter Cox led the inning off with a single, which set up five consecutive hits against West Florence pitching. Keller singled, followed by a single from Solari, who knocked in two runs, followed by a single from Ross and a two-run double by Ashworth. In total, Post 43 scored those four runs on six hits in the inning.
In the fifth inning, Logan Sulli singled to start things off as Solari had a two-run double and Childs had an RBI single in the inning as well. Post 43 scored four runs on four hits in the inning to give them a 14-1 lead.
Besides Solari and Ashworth, Cox, Keller, Ross, Childs and Griffin all had two hits. Both Childs and Giffin each drove in two runs as well in the game.
Pitching wise, Post 43 managed their pitchers as they used four different guys, but no more than two innings. Ross got the win going two innings allowing one run on two hits, while walking three and striking out one.
Cox pitched an inning and Ethan Lambert threw an inning and two-thirds. Keller finished the game out pitching a third of an inning. One thing Lewis said he didn’t want to do that West Florence had to do earlier in the tournament was burn its pitching which it did against Hartsville.
“That game took a lot out of them,” Lewis said.
In total, Post 43 pitching only allowed three runs on four hits in the game, but did struggle in walking seven West Florence hitters.
Seniors rained out
The Fort Mill Post 43 Senior team tried to open their state tournament on the road at Inman Post 45, but had their game rained out. They will try to get started later today back in Inman.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
