BOILING SPRINGS, SC - The Boiling Springs baseball team opened up region play with a big victory over Clover as they defeated the Blue Eagles 8-2 in a home matchup on Monday night.
"It's a good feeling to start out region play with a win," said Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lipscomb. "You always worry about that first game despite having a pretty good non-region schedule and after giving up a cheap run to start the night our guys bounced back in the bottom half of the inning. We hit the ball well tonight and hopefully we can carry that into Wednesday and Friday." Clover grabbed the first lead of the game when Ben Snavely reached base on an infield single before advancing to third base on an error and scoring on wild pitch on a called third strike. With that wild pitch third strike that allowed the Clover hitter to reach base, Bulldogs pitcher Tristan Smith had the rare feat of striking out four different batters in the inning. The Boiling Springs offense battled back in impressive fashion during the bottom half of the first inning as they scored six runs to take the lead over the Blue Eagles. The Bulldogs got the inning started when Luke Compton singled to centerfield before stealing second and third base while Hudson Wilson worked a walk. With runners on first and third, on a 2-0 count Bulldogs hitter Tristan Smith crushed a homerun to right field to give Boiling Springs a 3-1 lead with no outs. Davis Starnes followed Smith with a double that landed at the base of the leftfield wall before stealing third base and scoring on a single to leftfield by Jackson Cole. Cole advanced to third base on a double to right centerfield by Corben Childers before both runners scored a single to leftfield by Jackson Reel to give the Bulldogs a 6-1 lead over the Blue Eagles at the end of the first inning. Clover added a run in the second inning to cut the Bulldogs lead to 6-2 as they were able to score on a runner coming home on plays that included a fielder's choice, a wild pitch, and an error. From the third inning through the end of the game the Blue Eagles only had two players reach base as Tristan Smith struck out ten of the twelve batters he faced from the third inning until one out left in the sixth inning. Smith struck out 15 batters on Monday while only allowing one hit and no earned runs. "He's special and the Lord blessed him with a lightning bolt for a left arm," said Lipscomb about Smith's performance on the mound. "It's hard for high school kids do much with what he does on the mound, he's just a special kid." In the bottom of the third inning Bulldogs hitter Jackson Cole led off the inning with a towering homerun to rightfield to push the Bulldogs lead to 7-2 over the Blue Eagles. Ashton Smith followed Cole by working a walk before advancing to second on a wild pitch and to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Jackson Reel. Smith made the Boiling Springs lead 8-2 when he scored on a sacrifice flyball to centerfield by Luke Compton. When Bulldogs Tristan Smith left the game after pitching five and two-thirds innings, he was replaced by Jackson Kostiuk who pitched a scoreless one and a third innings while striking out two batters and not allowing a baserunner. Boiling Springs will look to build on the momentum from their win on Monday night as they face Clover twice more this week in region play, at Clover on Wednesday and at home again on Friday. Lipscomb says he knows now that his team is in region play, it's going to be a battle each time they hit the field from here until the end of the season. "We had a great run last year in region," said Lipscomb. "We had some great games last year and we know it's going to be a battle each game. If we come ready to place in each game I think we can be successful again in this region and hopefully that can carry over into the playoffs." Comments are closed.
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