Boiling Springs and Spartanburg opened up their annual baseball series in a unique way on Monday by playing a doubleheader at two locations that are separated by ten miles and ninety-three years of history.
The day opened up at historic Duncan Park that was opened in 1926 and has been the home of the Spartanburg Vikings baseball team since 2008. The stadium has played host to many baseball greats such as Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Ryne Sandberg, Dale Murphy, Tom Glavine, and Larry Bowa who have all taken to the diamond inside the walls of Duncan Park. Boiling Springs got an impressive performance from their offense and from pitcher Mitchell Miller in the Bulldogs 9-5 victory in game one of the series on Monday afternoon. The Bulldogs jumped on the board early as they scored three runs in the first inning as Davis Brown and Bryson Mitchell both scored on a Nick Bailey single to put the Bulldogs up 2-0. Bailey would come around to score on a Ben Hutchins double to right field to put the Boiling Springs lead at 3-0. In the bottom of the first inning Spartanburg was able to score three runs with only one out being recorded when Mitchell Miller came on in relief for the Bulldogs to limit the first inning damage. Miller would pick up the win for the Bulldogs as he pitched 6 2/3 innings of relief while limiting the Vikings to two runs and six hits the rest of the game. ”Mitchell is a guy who has been in situations like this before for us but not usually this early in the game,” said Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lipscomb. “We knew we were going to have to burn some innings today and he really stepped up for us.” The Bulldogs retook the lead in the third inning when Dawson Taylor reached on a single before stealing second base. He then stole third base and came around to score on an error on the throw to third to give Boiling Springs a 4-3 lead. They would add one more run in the third inning when Hutchins scored on an Andrew Greer double to put the Bulldogs up 5-3 after three innings. In the fifth inning Boiling Springs added four more runs as Tristan Smith, Greer, Brown, and Mitchell all scored without a Bulldogs hit in the inning and pushed the Boiling Springs lead to 9-3 on their way to victory in game one. As the sun started to fade on Monday evening the second game of the day began at Boiling Springs’ brand new baseball field that opened at the start of the 2019 season and a facility that the Bulldogs hope to fill with a legendary history of its own. "We've got a great new ballpark here that we're very thankful to have," said Coach Lipscomb. "We're still figuring the new park out and looking forward to the history we can make here." Boiling Springs fell behind in the top of the first inning 1-0 but didn't trail for long as they took the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Davis Brown opened up the game for the Bulldogs with a single and later advanced to third base on an errant pickoff throw before scoring on a single by Bryson Mitchell. Mitchell would later score on a wild pitch after stealing second base to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead after one inning. Spartanburg would tie the game in the third inning when Garrett Stevens scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2. In the bottom of the sixth inning the Bulldogs had some good luck and patience on their side as the Bulldogs grabbed a 5-2 lead when Andrew Greer, Tristan Smith, and Davis Brown were all able to score without registering a hit in the inning thanks to Vikings errors and walks. The Vikings went down in order in the top of the seventh as the Bulldogs struck out the side and grabbed the 5-2 victory. "Duncan Park is a really special place and I our kids were so lucky to get to play in a stadium with so much history to start the day and end the day here at our brand new facility," said Coach Lipscomb. "It has just been a great day of baseball." With the victory the Bulldogs will go into spring break on a three game winning streak and their coach thinks they're starting to get healthy at the right time of the season. "With a few more wins we can help solidify ourselves a playoff spot," said Coach Lipscomb. "This is a crazy game and if you can get hot a the right time anything can happen. We're getting some guys back from injuries and I think that can only make us better." The Bulldogs will return to action after spring break when they host Riverside on April 9th. Comments are closed.
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