Fort Mill Post 43 is .500 after 2 rain-shortened weeks

Another doubleheader and another split for Fort Mill American Legion Post 43.

Now 2-2 on the season, Post 43 traveled to Lancaster Post 31 for their only games of the week after games Monday and Tuesday were washed out when weekend rains wrecked the field at Fort Mill High.

Fort Mill won the first game 5-3 in nine innings, but lost the second game 4-3 in eight with each game going into extra innings. Doubleheaders in Legion baseball are seven-inning games instead of the usual nine.

In the first game, Fort Mill catcher Nick Cash drove in two runs in the top of the ninth on a single, scoring Drake Durham and Timmy Lehman to give Post 43 the 5-3 lead. Both Lehman and Clay Helvey, who got the start on the mound, went 2-4 to lead Fort mill at the plate.

Post 43 scattered nine hits, but also struck out 16 times in the game. Joseph Wyatt got the win on the mound, pitching five innings of nearly perfect baseball in relief of Helvey. Wyatt allowed just one base runner on one hit, while striking out three.

Fort Mill got its offense started in the second inning as Helvey singled and was later driven in by Lehman, who also singled. Austin Marco drove in Lehman on a single as well. Post 43 added another run in the fourth on a Jack Corkery singled scoring Durham.

In the second game, Josh Jones got the start and went seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out two. Jones pitched well through six innings, but Lancaster finally got to him in the seventh, scoring two runs on three hits to tie the game at 3-3.

Corkery came in to start the eighth inning and was credited with the loss after allowing a walk and the game-winning hit to Post 31 in just a third of an inning of work.

Fort Mill scored two runs in the fourth inning on three hits, but struggled at the plate, getting only five hits in the second game. Lehman drove in both Jones and Durham in the fourth inning to give Post 43 an early lead. Fort Mill added another run in the fifth to take a 3-0 lead before Lancaster started to chip away at things.

Post 43 has another doubleheader scheduled this week at York and then a single game at Clover on Thursday.

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Fort Mill Post 43 is .500 after 2 rain-shortened weeks."