Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Lancaster: Here’s your July 13 summer baseball roundup

Despite some rainouts, the seasons of the local summer baseball leagues — from Charlotte to Lancaster, Fort Mill and Rock Hill — are beginning to take shape.

Here’s what you need to know this week.

Piedmont Pride rides 8-game winning streak

In the Southern Collegiate Baseball League, the Piedmont Pride enjoyed a solid week. The team remains in first place in the standings.

Head coach Joe Hudak’s team won all four of its games last week as it upped its current winning streak to eight and improved its overall record to 14-3. The Pride hold a one-game lead over the second place Carolina Vipers.

The Pride opened the week with a 10-0 road win over the Vipers. Sam Blancato led the hitting attack with two hits and drove in two runs. Devin Buckner added a home run and drove in two runs. Willie Lumpklin earned the win. He pitched six innings, allowed only two hits and struck out three.

On Wednesday, the Pride edged the Concord Athletics, 4-2, at Truist Field in Charlotte. Piedmont scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to break a 1-1 deadlock. Alex Robenolt led the way with two hits. Tanner McCallister and Buckner added one hit each and both knocked in a run. Conor Miller, the third Pride pitcher in the game, earned the win in relief.

Friday saw the Pride defeat the Lake Norman Copperheads, 10-8, at home. The Pride scored four runs in the sixth inning to break a 6-6 tie. Bennett Smith led the nine-hit attack with a pair of hits, including a double, and four runs batted in. Adam Grob added a pair of hits and drove in one run. Miller earned the win in relief; he entered in the sixth and allowed only two hits and one earned run the rest of the way.

Piedmont completed the perfect week with a 11-1 road victory over the Mooresville Spinners on Saturday. Phillip Glasser paced the offensive effort with three hits and a pair of RBI. Buckner added two hits and drove in one run, while Scottie Lee added a hit and knocked in a pair of teammates. Dawson Gause earned the win. He worked into the sixth and allowed only one hit.

“We had a great week,” said Pride head coach Joe Hudak. “Our guys are really coming together. I am very pleased with the improvement we have shown as the year progresses.”

The eight-game winning streak has given the team a lot of confidence, but they have not become complacent.

“We do not feel any pressure about the streak. We know we have to play well every game,” added Hudak. “We continue to take everything one game at a time.”

The veteran head coach feels like the key to continue what they have started is to keep improving every day.

“We really stepped it up on offense this week. We just need to keep working on our timing at the plate,” Hudak said. “Our pitching has turned out to be very good this season. The staff had a great week. We got some great efforts from our starters, and our bullpen did an excellent job when they were called upon.”

Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Lancaster power through ALB schedule

Local teams in American League Baseball had problems with the rain last week. Only one region game and one non-region contest was played.

Fort Mill won the only region contest. They toppled Lancaster, 10-0, on Friday night. Fort Mill is 2-1 overall and 2-0 in the region.

Fort Mill got 11 hits in earning the region victory. AJ Jaworski led the attack with three hits, including a three-run home run. Patrick Matthews and Brady Stone added two hits each to the offense. Xavier Cumbee contributed a solo home run, which started the five-run outburst in the fifth frame that led to a 10-0 lead.

Blake Sherrill pitched a complete game to earn the win. He allowed only two hits.

Fort Mill head coach Tom Skula feels good about where his team is right now.

“We hit the ball well last Friday night,” said Skula. “We are getting our timing down. Sherrill really stepped it up with a super outing last Friday.”

The loss dropped Lancaster to 1-4 overall and 1-2 in region play. Britt Sistare and Colby Jackson got the two hits for Lancaster in the loss.

Lancaster head coach Jimmy Jackson is hoping his team can turn things around this week.

“We have not played that badly overall so far. We ran into a super effort from Fort Mill last Friday,” said Jackson. “Our team is very capable of playing well. I am hoping for some consistency this week. Having all of the rainouts has hurt all of us. Hopefully, we can get back to normal this week.”

Rock Hill played the only non-region game this week. The team lost a 4-0 decision to West Columbia on the road. They are now 0-5 overall and 0-1 in the region.

Hunter Fryzowicz and Ryan Brown continue to lead Rock Hill offensively. Nick Petit and Sydney Mullennix are the top pitchers for the team.

The rain has really hurt Rock Hill. They will play five games this week in an effort to catch up with their region counterparts’ schedule. Head coach Jeremy McCoy’s club will play two region games in addition to completing a suspended contest from two weeks ago. They also have a pair of non-region games on the card.

Want to watch?

Piedmont Pride

• Monday: 12 p.m. at the Carolina Vipers (doubleheader)

• Tuesday: 11 a.m. at Concord (doubleheader)

• Thursday: 7 p.m. at Lake Norman

• Friday: 7 p.m. at Mooresville

• Saturday: 6 p.m. at home in Charlotte (Truist Field)

American League Baseball

The region schedule is packed this week as the three ALB teams try to make up some of the rainouts from the first two weeks of play. (All region games are in Lancaster at the home of Post 31.):

• Fort Mill and Rock Hill will finish their suspended game and play a regularly scheduled game on Monday.

• Rock Hill travels to Columbia on Tuesday to play Body Shop Baseball, a travel team. Rock Hill plays the Columbia team away on Wednesday.

• Also on Wednesday, Fort Mill plays Lancaster.

• Thursday finds Fort Mill traveling to Dalzell to take on Thomas Sumter Academy.

• On Friday, Rock Hill plays Lancaster.

This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 2:17 PM.