Hartsville baseball defeats Darlington
By Don Gearhart
After a narrow win against county rival earlier in the week, the Hartsville Red Foxes looked to wrap up a season sweep against the Darlington Falcons. The game started out like a near repeat of the first contest. Hartsville got on the board in the first inning when Jackson Moore and Cam Canerella walked ahead of Ryan Jordan’s RBI base hit. Emmanuel Pendergrass led off with a base hit to start the Falcon half of the inning. Shemar Simes was hit by a pitch and Milijah Holt walked to load the bases with nobody out. Gage McKenzie’s grounder to third caused Pendergrass to get forced out at home plate. Chuck Keith hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Simes, but, what could have been a multiple run inning for the Falcons was cut short when Holt was caught off second base on the play.
A close game ensued until the fourth inning. With two outs, Alvee Fulwood walked. McKendrie Douglas hit a long fly ball to right field that was misplayed resulting in Fullwood rounding the bases to score. When the throw to third trying to catch Douglas got away, he scored to put Hartsville up 3-1.
Treion McFarland increased the Red Foxes lead to 4-1 when he led off the fifth inning with a long home run to left field. In the meantime, Douglas was able to keep the Falcons from managing any scoring threats.
The sixth inning all belonged to Hartsville. Roddi Morris walked and raced home on Moore’s triple. Moore scored on Canerella’s fielder’s choice and Canerella was safe on the play due to a misplay. He stole second base and came around to score on McFarland’s lined base it to center field. McFarland stole second and while attempting to steal third, scored when the throw to third sailed into left field. Now Hartsville commanded a comfortable 8-1 lead.
After a lead-off walk to start the seventh inning, Fulwood doubled to put runners on second and third. A sacrifice fly by Cole Winburn drove in a run. Fulwood came around to score when Canerella delivered with an RBI single to set the score at 10-1. Darlington did not yet throw in the towel. Chase Watkins worked his third walk of the game. An out later, TJ Hankins had a base hit, then, Pendergrass was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Simes hard grounder was handled by Canerella who tossed to second base for the force out that ended the game.
McFarland and Fulwood combined for half of Hartsville’s eight hits with two apiece. McFarland and Canerella each drove in two runs for the Red Foxes who were also aided by six base-on-balls, two hit-by-pitch, and a host of Falcons errors.
Douglas was the winning pitcher allowing only the single run while giving up just two hits against five free passes. Winburn came on to finish the game, allowing just one hit in his two innings of work.