SPARTANBURG, SC - The Boiling Springs baseball team got a strong pitching performance from three different pitchers on Monday night as they defeated Chapman 8-0 in the final game for both teams in the 2022 version of the Steve Sanders Tournament.
The final four games of the tournament (Monday and Tuesday) are being held at the historic Duncan Park, home park of the Spartanburg Vikings. "The way we played the last couple of days gives us some momentum as we head down to the beach this weekend," said Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lipscomb. "Last year we struggled early on and it's good to see our kids ready to play this year. I think we battled hard in this tournament and overall I think we're just getting better. We have a long way to go but it's good to get off to a good start." In the top of the first inning, it looked like Chapman was going to jump ahead of the Bulldogs as they loaded the bases, but Boiling Springs pitcher Jackson Cole was able to strike out the final Panthers batter, his third strikeout of the inning. With one out in the bottom of the first the Bulldogs got their offense going as Hudson Wilson worked a walk before moving to second base on an infield single by Tristan Smith. After the Panthers were able to strike out their second batter of the game, the Bulldogs freshman Corben Childers walked to the plate with two runners on when he hit a double to deep right centerfield at Duncan Park to score both Wilson and Smith giving the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. On the very next at-bat the Bulldogs Luke Compton laid down a perfect along the third base line that resulted in a Panthers error allowing Childers to score and give Boiling Springs a 3-0 lead at the end of the first inning. Cole returned to the mound in the top of the second inning for the Bulldogs where he struck out three straight Panther batters and quickly turn the game back over to the Boiling Springs offense. With one out in the bottom of the second inning the Bulldogs Davis Starnes worked five pitch walk before stealing second base and advancing to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Hudson Wilson. Starnes made the Bulldogs lead 4-0 when he scored on an infield single by Tristan Smith. In the top of the third inning Cole registered three straight outs for the second inning in a row which finished his night with six strikeouts over three innings while only allowing one hit and no runs. The next two innings were scoreless for both teams as Jackson Kostiuk pitched two scoreless innings for the Bulldogs while striking out two batters. In the fifth inning Chapman was able to load the bases with no outs but a great play by second baseman Jackson Reel saw him nab a line drive before throwing on to first base for the double play before Kostiuk forced a groundout back to the pitcher to end the inning. During the same span the Panthers saw pitchers Cason Owens and Dalton Mahaffey combine to get six outs in seven batters over the two innings that included two strikeouts by Mahaffey. After making a great play at second base for the Bulldogs in the previous inning, Jackson Reel entered the game as the pitcher and retired all three batters he faced including a strikeout to end the top half of the sixth inning. The performance by Reel helped punctuate an impressive night pitching by Jackson Cole, Jackson Kostiuk, and Jackson Reel as they combined for a one-hit shutout that saw them combine for nine strikeouts in six innings of play. "We're not really sure of who our third starter is just yet and we've been playing around with some different options as far as arms are concerned," said Lipscomb. "Jackson Cole has come a long way and has improved a lot which we're really excited about going into the season. Jackson Kostiuk is a senior who had some arm problems last year and this year he's found a slider and is an arm I'm not sure we were expecting to have but will help us this year. Then you have Reel who came in as a submariner and was tough throwing strikes so as far as our pitching staff we got to keep just getting better but we do have some arms." The Bulldogs saw their biggest offensive output in the bottom of the sixth inning where they scored four runs on three hits to push their lead to 8-0 over the Panthers. The big offensive inning got started for the Bulldogs with one out when Ashton Smith worked a seven-pitch walk before moving to second base on an infield single by Brent Fowler. With two runners on, Richie Lewis hit a single to right field to score Smith and push the lead to 5-0. After Rylee Douglas, who was pinch running for Fowler, advanced to third base on the single by Lewis, he then scored on a single to left field by Davis Starnes making the lead 6-0 over the Panthers. Hudson Wilson worked a walk to load the bases for the Bulldogs before Tristan Smith brought home Lewis on a sacrifice fly to left field to push the lead to 7-0. Ty Stanford came on in the sixth inning to pinch hit for Reel and was able to bring home Starnes on a single to left centerfield to make the Boiling Springs lead 8-0 over Chapman. With the victory the Bulldogs finish the Steve Sanders Tournament with a 3-0-1 record and will now prepare for their trip to the IP Classic Tournament in Georgetown, SC that starts on Thursday. "The IP Classic is a different breed with a lot of big arms and just some really good baseball, " said Lipscomb. "We're excited and thankful to get to go down there and play some baseball. We're going to go down to the beach and have some fun while gelling as a team, so let's just go down there and win it." Boiling Springs will start the IP Classic on Thursday against Blythewood at 7:30 PM before facing AC Flora on Friday and York on Saturday. Their results over the first three days will determine their matchup on Sunday. Comments are closed.
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