In a baseball game in which the start was delayed for over two hours and took the steady work of several people for well over three hours just to make the field playable, Sumter P-15's pitcher Jordan Montgomery turned it into something special.
The left-hander threw a no-hitter in a 10-0 victory over Hartsville in the opening game of the best-of-five second-round series of the American Legion state playoffs at Riley Park on Monday.
"I really didn't think we were going to play tonight," said Montgomery, who had 13 strikeouts against just two walks. "I was at my house and the way it was raining, I didn't think we would play. I got to the park about 6:30 (p.m.) and there really wasn't anything to do."
Sumter head coach Wallie Jones and his coaches, the regular grounds crew and extra workers from the City of Sumter were busy though, trying to get water off both the infield and outfield dropped from the dangerous storms that started passing through Sumter around 4:30. It was a work in progress throughout until the field was finally ready to go with first pitch at 9:31 for the game originally scheduled for a 7:30 start.
"I want to thank everyone who worked to get the field ready, the city, everyone who helped," said Jones, whose team improved to 25-2 on the season. "We just felt like we needed to get this game in because the weather is supposed to be the same tomorrow. If you can play a game, you need to try and play it."
Montgomery didn't start going through his warmup routine until about 8:30, but he didn't think the delay affected him at all during his preparation - and obviously not during the game.
"After about the second inning I thought I had pretty good stuff," Montgomery said. "But I didn't really realize I had the no-hitter until about the sixth inning."
Montgomery lost his perfect game on the third batter when Cody Mincey reached on an error. The two balls that came the closest to being hits for Post 53, which fell to 14-12 on the season, came off the bats of cleanup hitter Hunter Privette. He lined out to leftfielder Blake Graham to end the first and hitting a sinking liner that centerfielder J. Tyler Smith gobbled out for the first out in the third after Montgomery had walked the first two batters.
Montgomery retired the final 12 batters he faced, starting with the snag by Smith.
"Jordan had a tremendous night tonight," Jones said. "And there is no more deserving of a person to get this than Jordan Montgomery."
Sumter, which won three of four games against Hartsville in League III play, had something of an advantage coming into the game. The P-15's hadn't played since Wednesday, having swept Summerville in three games in the first round. Hartsville went to five games against Conway in its first-round series, winning the final two while pitching Privette and Mincey - its top two pitchers - on two days rest.
Post 53 started right-hander Russell Horton and Sumter went to work on him in the first inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Patrick Gordon blooped in a single to score Jeremy Buckner, who had reached on a fielder's choice. Zach Sherrill followed with a single through the middle to score Michael Blackmon, who was hit by a pitch, to make it 2-0.
Sumter used the long ball in the third to push the lead to 5-0. Bruce Caldwell started the inning with a line shot to dead centerfield that cleared the 400-foot sign for a home run. Three batters later, Sherrill hit a two-run dinger down the leftfield line to push the lead to 5-0.
Sumter added two more runs in the fourth. Cam Martin reached on a throwing error by Horton on a bunt to open the inning. Graham put down a sacrifice to move Martin up, and when third was left uncovered, Martin went on to third. He scored when first baseman Storm Beasley threw the ball away trying to get him at third.
Caldwell doubled with two outs and scored on a Blackmon base hit to up the advantage to 7-0.
The P-15's got the three runs they needed for the mercy rule in the bottom of the sixth. Martin drew a one-out walk and Graham reached on an infield single. Martin scored on a two-out hit by Caldwell and Blackmon followed with a two-run double to the gap in left-center to make it 10-0.
"They weren't able to throw one of their top pitchers, but we were able to get to him (Horton) pretty good," said Jones, whose team had 11 hits.
Caldwell led the way, going 3-for-4 with the homer, the double two runs batted in and three runs scored. Graham was 3-for-3 with a triple. Blackmon was 2-for-2 with a double and three RBI while walking and being hit by a pitch. Sherrill was also 2-for-3 with two RB
