Shortstop Zach Bailes (8) plants and prepares to throw over a laser to the bag.
BLYTHEWOOD – The Blythewood and West Florence pitching staffs battled it out in a close game Saturday, but the Knights eventually edged the Bengals, 3-1 after 11 innings. Bengals starter Hunter McCoy and Knights starter Dustin Williams combined for nine innings of work, seven hits, five strikeouts, only one-run and West Florence stranded 14 baserunners, while Blythewood left nine on the base-path.
“You got to give their guys credit,” Bengals’ head coach Banks Faulkner said. “They filled up the zone, and like most high school teams, when you don’t get a lot of free bases, it’s hard to generate offense.”
Relief pitching was also a highlight of the low-scoring battle. Quincy Manning came on in the eighth for West Florence and pitched four innings of shut-out ball, meanwhile Daniel Zippel and Landon Lucas came out of the bullpen for Blythewood, pitching some solid ball in tough situations.
“We’re pitching at a really high level,” Faulkner said. “That was our big question mark coming into the year and we feel like we got six guys that are throwing the ball good and so we’ve got some depth too, and we’re not just one or two guys then we see a big drop-off. We’re throwing two sophomores and a freshman in big situations and they’re doing nothing but getting better.”
West Florence threatened to take an early lead in the top of the second when pitcher Dustin Williams beat out an infield single and nearly came around after another Knights’ single, but a laser of a throw from left-field enabled catcher Josh Cowan to tag the runner at the plate.
A runner did not actually cross the plate until the bottom half of the fifth inning. Brady Beasley, the second batter in the fifth inning, was drilled by a pitch, and a double from Ben Spittler landed Beasley on third. Then an error allowed Beasley to easily score.
West Florence did not stay down long. In the top of the sixth they knotted the game back up. Brennan Herndon singled off of Daniel Zippel, then stole second before being brought home by pitcher Dustin Williams.
Then the bats went cold again for both teams until the top of the tenth. The Knights picked up a single and double to plant a base-runner on third with one out, but the Bengals wiggled out of the jam to survive another inning.
Mason Sheeler led off the top off the eleventh with a single, and Ethan Dowdy followed him onto base after Blythewood was unable to field a bunt. Then Jake Swartz delivered the biggest hit of the game when he lined a laser out to right-field, scoring both Sheeler and Dowdy.
That left Blythewood with just three more outs to score at least two runs. Josh Cowan led off and grounded out on the first pitch. He was followed by Zach Bailes, and he flew out to left field.
Thomas Murphy, the Bengals’ designated hitter, strolled up to the plate representing Blythewood’s last hope, but a fly-out to right field ended the game.
“It’s tough,” Faulkner said. “It’s not an effort thing. It’s just one of them days that’s why you talk about pitching and playing defense. Proud of our pitching staff for how they continued to throw zeros up there. Give them credit, they just got a big hit and we couldn’t.”
BHS: 0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0- 1
WFHS: 0-0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-2- 3
Hitting: 1B- Ben Spittler, Todd Mattox, Aiden Massey (2), Landon Cruz, Zaach Bailes (2), Brady Beasley, Jordan Flemming (BHS); Jake Swartz, Brennan Herndon, Hunter Harvin, Dustin Williams (2), Zach Medlin, Mason Sheeler (WFHS). 2B- Brennan Herndon, Ethan Dowdy (WFHS).
Pitching: WP- Quincy Manning, LP- Landon Lucas.
LOB: BHS-9, WFHS- 14.
