What’s the latest on summer baseball in Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Lancaster? What to know

Local summer baseball leagues finished another week of play last week, and the trends of all of the area teams are slowly emerging.

Here’s the latest on summer baseball in Rock Hill, Fort Mill and Lancaster, S.C.

Wins stack up for Rock Hill’s Piedmont Pride

The Piedmont Pride is 17-4 and sits in second place in the Southern Collegiate League. They are one game behind the Carolina Vipers. Coach Joe Hudak’s team won three of four last week. The team also had one game postponed and two contests rained out.

“We had seven games scheduled last week before the rain,” Hudak said. “Our staff has responded all year. I am sure they can take care of the extra load.”

The Pride opened the week on Monday with a doubleheader sweep of the Carolina Venon. Piedmont won the first game, 4-1, and got the nightcap, 3-0.

Hayden Cross led the hitting attack in the opener with a pair of hits and one RBI. Willie Limpkin earned the victory. He tossed a complete game, allowing only three hits and striking out 10.

In the second contest Devin Buckner and Scottie Lee each drove in a run to lead the offense. Andrew Terrell got the victory with six frames of work. He allowed only two hits and struck out six.

On Tuesday Piedmont split a doubleheader with the Concord Athletics. The Pride won the first game 6-3, but saw their 11-game winning streak halted with a 7-4 loss in the second contest.

Bennett Smith led the offense in the opener. He had a double and a triple and drove in one run. Conor Miller picked up the win in relief. He entered the game in the fourth and allowed only two hits and no runs the rest of the way.

The Athletics scored three times in the bottom of the fifth to break a 4-4 tie and claim the victory in the nightcap. Smith paced the Pride attack at the plate with a hit and one RBI.

Thursday’s game was cancelled because of logistics, and the games on Friday and Saturday were rained out. All three will be made up in the next two weeks.

The extra games will tax the Pride’s pitching staff, but Hudak is confident they can handle it. The Pride is a faith based team, and Hudak credits that aspect of his program with bringing the players together so quickly.

“We have chapel every Sunday night, and we do a lot of other things together as a team,” he added. “We are together more than other teams in the league. That has helped us come together so well. We have gotten to know each other quickly. Once they know someone, they will trust that person. That makes for a better team.”

American League Baseball season continues

In the American League Baseball season, Fort Mill continues to lead the way. The team won three of four games to improve to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in the region. Rock Hill was 2-2 for the week and is 2-7 overall and 1-2 in region play. Lancaster lost its only contest during the week and is now 1-5 in all games and 1-3 in the region.

Fort Mill head coach Tom Skula feels like his team is right where they want to be, he said.

“We are in first place, and we can wrap up the regular season this week with a couple of wins,” he said. “Our guys had a good week last week. We can not take anything for granted. If we keep playing with the intensity we displayed last week, we should be in good shape.”

On Monday, Fort Mill and Rock Hill split a doubleheader. Rock Hill won the first game, which was a completion of a suspended contest earlier in the year, by a count of 4-3. Fort Mill claimed the regularly scheduled game, 11-3.

Jack Killelea, who led Rock Hill with three hits, drove in Will Dorrell with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh to win the suspended game. Dylan Smoak earned the win for Rock Hill.

Fort Mill used a nine-hit attack and took advantage of 10 walks to win the nightcap. Kolby Crepeau led the offense with three hits, including a three-run homer. He drove in six runs. Xavier Cumbee added two hits and drove in three runs. Magdiel Cotto picked up the victory for Fort Mill.

On Tuesday, Rock Hill traveled to Columbia and blasted Bodyshop Baseball, a travel team, by a count of 16-4. Rock Hill pounded out 16 hits in picking up the victory. Ethan Belk led the way with four hits. Reed Garland added two hits and drove in three runs, while Smoak had a pair of hits and two RBI. Damien Callagy also had two hits. Garland earned the victory by working four innings and striking out eight.

On Wednesday night, Rock Hill returned to Columbia and dropped a 3-0 decision to Bodyshop Baseball: Will Dorrell led Rock Hill with a pair of hits, and Nick Petit and Jordan Thurmond added one each hit each.

Also on Wednesday night, Fort Mill toppled Lancaster, 10-0. Fort Mill used a six-run outburst in the fifth inning to take a 10-0 lead.

Cumbee led the offense. His three-run home run was the big hit in the six-run outburst in the fifth. Patrick Matthews and Chase Dougherty both added a pair of hits to the 11-hit assault. Blake Sherrill earned the win. He worked four innings and allowed only two hits.

On Thursday night, Fort Mill defeated Dalzell, 6-5. Fort Mill scored four times in the fourth to erase a 5-2 deficit to earn the victory.

Cumbee led the hitting attack with three hits, and he drove in two runs. Crepeau added two hits and drove in three runs, while Brooks Rhinehart added a home run.

Dusty Sanderlin, the third pitcher for Fort Mill, picked up the win. He entered the contest in the third inning and tossed a shutout the rest of the way. He surrendered only two hits and struck out four.

Rock Hill was leading Lancaster 3-1 in the fourth inning when the rain halted their contest on Friday night.

Want to see some summer baseball?

• The Piedmont Pride have four games this week. On Tuesday, they host Lake Norman at Truist Field at 7 p.m. On Wednesday, they take on Mooresville at home at 12 p.m. On Friday, they host the Carolina Vipers at 6 p.m. They close out the week with a home game on Saturday against the Carolina Venon at 6 p.m. (Some of those games could result in doubleheaders in order to make up the games missed last week.)

• The American League Baseball schedule for this week has Fort Mill and Rock Hill playing a doubleheader on Monday starting at 6 p.m. On Tuesday, Fort Mill takes on Greer in Columbia at 7 p.m. Wednesday at 7 p.m., Rock Hill and Lancaster will complete the rained-out contest from last Friday and play a regularly scheduled game. The week closes on Friday night with Fort Mill and Lancaster playing a single game, starting at 7 p.m.

This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 2:30 PM.