Tyler Romanik slides safely into third in Monday’s makeup game against A.C. Flora. (Photo/Kristy Kimball Massey)
BLYTHEWOOD – The Bengals were hoping to go into the postseason with a little momentum. Instead, the defense sputtered against A.C. Flora, and the 3-time defending 3A champion Falcons cruised to a 6-0 victory Monday.
The Bengals, who secured second place in Region IV-4A with a win over Ridge View Friday, didn’t need a victory Monday night, although it would have been nice to have moved into the postseason with one.
“We were hoping get a little momentum,” head coach Barry Mizzell said, “but for whatever reason, we showed up flat, we didn’t play hard.”
A.C. Flora (15-8) got four runs on just one hit and three Bengals errors in the first inning to take an early lead.
“We just didn’t show up in the first inning,” Mizzell said. “We had the first ball of the game hit to the shortstop that was an error, a pop fly to left field that we misplayed, a passed ball, a dropped ball, and that kind of set the tone for the whole game.”
Josh Hernandez homered with nobody on base for the Falcons in the second inning and Donald Gillespie did so in the fifth to account for the other two runs.
Toby Robson pitched the first four innings for the Bengals. Although giving up four unearned runs and Hernandez’s homer, he scattered six hits and struck out two.
Left-hander Austin Hartman came on to start the fifth and gave up Gillespie’s homer and two other hits in his two innings.
“I thought our kids pitched well,” Mizzell said. “We pitched some kids that haven’t pitched in a while and they did pretty well.”
Hunter Lomas worked the seventh, struck out two and walked one.
Blythewood (16-7) opens the 4A District III Tournament as the No.2 seed in the upper state bracket Thursday night, playing host to the third place finisher in Region I: either Laurens or T.L. Hanna.
Flora also won its region, IV-3A, and is the top seed in the 3A District III Tournament that begins Friday. The Falcons fell 9-8 to Dreher in eight innings Friday night, which was a cause for concern for head coach Andy Hallett.
“We kind of hiccupped Friday night. We had the prom blues Friday night,” Hallett said. “We didn’t really play well, and it was really important that we played well tonight and we swung the bat well, played fundamentally out on the field, got the ball over the plate. It makes me feel a lot better than what I saw Friday.”
ACF: 4-1-0 0-1-0 0 – 6-9-1
BHS: 0-0-0 0-0-0 0 – 0-4-3
BHS: Toby Robson (L), Austin Hartman (5), Hunter Lomas (7), and Andrew Crook. ACF: David Metts (W), Harper Carlton (5), and Josh Hernandez. HR: Hernandez, Donald Gillespie: LOB – BHS 6, ACF 8.
