COLUMBIA - The Sumter P-15's hit the baseball solidly through the first five innings of its opening game in the American Legion state tournament against Richland Post 6 on Friday. Sumter had eight hits, but had just one run to show for it as it left seven runners on base, including five in scoring position.
The P-15's tried a different approach - somewhat unintentionally - in the sixth and the floodgates opened.
Sumter took advantage of two infield hits, a bloop double and a ball lost in the lights to plate five runs and go on to a 6-4 victory at Memorial Stadium.
"I thought we hit the ball pretty well through the early innings, but didn't have anything to show for it," said Sumter head coach Wallie Jones. "We then got some chip shots in there and got five runs."
Sumter, which improved to 28-2 on the season, will face Gaffney today at 3 p.m. in a winners bracket game. Gaffney beat Florence 8-3 on Friday. Richland, 9-11, will face Florence today at noon in an elimination game.
In the other games, Rock Hill beat Murrells Inlet 5-0 and West Columbia won by forfeit over Hilton Head. Hilton Head had only 11 players and American Legion rules state that a team must have 12 players to start the game. Hilton Head and Murrells Inlet are scheduled to play today at 9 a.m. in an elimination game while West Columbia and Rock Hill play at 7.
All of today's games will be played at Capital City Stadium.
Zach Sherrill led off the sixth with a solid single to right-center field off of Richland starting pitcher Ryan Mercer, who entered the inning with a 2-1 lead.
J. Tyler Smith put down a bunt to move Sherrill to second and then things got interesting.
Trent Pannell hit a blooper behind second base that was in no man's land and fell between the second baseman, shortstop and centerfielder. Smith moved to third and Pannell went on to second as the base was left uncovered.
With the corners in and the middle of the infield back, Cam Martin hit a ground ball to second baseman Bret Fulmer. Richland was conceding the run, but first baseman Conner Lewis broke late to the bag and Martin beat it out for an RBI single. With runners on the corner, Blake Graham put down a bunt that Lewis fielded and initially thought of going home with it. He changed his mind, but no one was covering and Graham had an RBI single to make it 3-2.
After an out, Bruce Caldwell lifted a fly ball to left field that looked like an inning-ending out. However, Post 6 leftfielder Chandler Knox had no idea where the ball was, running toward left-center while the ball was down the left field line. It fell in for a two-run triple to make it 5-2.
"That missed fly ball was a really big play," Jones said. "We were really lucky with that. That gave us a couple of runs that we needed."
Caldwell came in on a hot smash by Michael Blackmon off the third baseman's glove to make it 6-2.
The score remained the same until the top of the ninth inning when Richland decided not to go away easily. Sumter reliever Andrew Reardon retired the first two batters of the inning and was 0-2 on pinch hitter Joseph Roberts when he doubled into the gap in right-center. Knox was hit by a pitch and Mercer followed with a single to center to score Roberts, make it 6-3 and bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Kyle Towles.
Towles lined a single to center to score Roberts. When centerfielder J. Tyler Smith dropped the ball upon trying to field it, Mercer tried to go to third. Smith threw a strike to third baseman Patrick Gordon, who applied the tag to end the game.
When asked if that was a play the team had worked on in practice, Jones said, "Yeah, yeah," without cracking a smile.
"This game was just a struggle the entire night," Jones said. "It was a tough tournament game. We were lucky to get out of here tonight with a victory."
Left-hander Jordan Montgomery started on the mound for Sumter, and he didn't have one of his best days. Montgomery, who had allowed just 19 hits during the season, gave up six hits through the first four innings. However, he gave up just two runs, one of them earned.
"Jordan didn't have but one good inning the entire night, but he really battled out there for us," Jones said. "He battled throughout the game for us, and he did an outstanding job to allow just one (earned) run in eight innings."
Montgomery worked 7 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits while striking out seven and walking none.
The teams traded home runs in the first inning on the small field, which is 337 feet to dead center field, 305 down the left field line and 300 to right.
Mercer started the game with a homer over the scoreboard in left field off of Mongtomery. In the bottom of the inning, Caldwell hit a two-out bomb over the right field fence that would have easily been out of Riley Park off of the left-handed Mercer to tie the game at 1-1.
Post 6 went back on top in the second on a Sumter error. Raymond Prince led off with a single and got to third on a pair of ground outs. Knox hit a line shot that Graham, the leftfielder, misplayed, allowing Prince to score and make it 2-1.
Caldwell finished 3-for-5 with with three RBI, while Blackmon and Pannell each had three hits. Sumter, which finished with 15 hits, also got two hits from Martin and Sherrill.
Jones wasn't sure who he was going to start on the mound against Gaffney.
"We're going to talk about that tonight (Friday)," he said. "We had a chance to see Gaffney and what they do and we're going to talk about it,"
Mercer was 3-for-4 and went the distance on the mound for Richland, striking out seven. Towles also had three hits.
