Fort Mill loses to Clover in Chester baseball tournament finals

After a 3-0 start to the season, the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets baseball team fell 4-0 to the Clover Blue Eagles in the championship game of the Chester County Natural Gas Tournament at the Chester Baseball Complex over the weekend.

It’s the only blemish on Fort Mill’s record heading into this week.

Fort Mill struggled some while the Jackets try to figure out their lineup in the early part of the season. First year head coach Travis Collier said his team needs to learn to make in-game adjustments better, but also recognized it is early in the season.

“It was a lack of focus,” Collier said. “That was the bottom line. We have to do a better job at making adjustments.”

Fort Mill’s Drew Hartman got the start on the mound though Collier knew from the opening pitch he was going to be throwing several pitchers in the game just to give people some time on the hill. Hartman started off well, allowing just one hit over two innings, but Clover would get to him.

Offensively, Fort Mill struggled at the plate and managed just four hits in the game. The Jackets didn’t get their first hit in the game until the third inning and left six men on base throughout the game.

After the Blue Eagles got the lead, they were able to rely on their pitching to see them through the game. Fort Mill never got more than one hit in an inning.

Turning point

The Jackets played well for the majority of the game, but did have one bad inning. Clover got to Hartman in the third and scored three runs on one hit, two walks and a hit batter.

Clover added an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning as they collected two hits in the inning with the second one an RBI single from Hayden Milley.

Critical

Fort Mill struggled at times stopping wild pitches and had several passed balls, which accounted for Clover being able to move runners from base to base rather easily. This also set up several runs for the Blue Eagles during that ever important third inning.

Star contributions

The Jackets were led by Griffin Reddeck at the plate. Reddeck went 2-3 for Fort Mill, while Kobe MacKinnon and Shayne Boyle also had hits in the game.

For Clover, six of their nine starters had hits in the game with Steven Yarab going 2-3 in the game with two singles, one of which resulted in a RBI. Milley and Jake Hylinski also drove in runs for the Blue Eagles as well.

On deck

Fort Mill hosts Chester in its home opener this week and then travels to Spring Valley as well.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 12:28 PM with the headline "Fort Mill loses to Clover in Chester baseball tournament finals."