Clover baseball stays on fire in win over rival York, plus all Rock Hill-area scores
Clover head coach Hank Wofford has told his team throughout its special 2021-22 season that “our best baseball has yet to be played.”
And that’s saying a lot.
But given the potential the Blue Eagles showed all week — and particularly on Thursday — it’s probably true.
Clover (18-2, 8-1 Region 3-5A) defeated archrival York, 6-0, on Thursday afternoon — crowning the Blue Eagles as 2022 YCHS Spring Break Slugfest Tournament champions. The win marked the Blue Eagles’ third win in as many days: The first came against South Pointe on Tuesday (7-2), and the second came against Northwestern on Wednesday (12-4).
“I told them coming into this tournament, I said, ‘When you guys start playing for each other, that’s when we’re really going to hit our stride,’” Wofford told The Herald postgame. “They’ve done an awesome job up to this point, but like I said, if we want to get to where we want to be, we’re going to have to continue it.”
If where we want to be is code for “competing for a state championship,” then the Blue Eagles might be on their way.
On Thursday, the Blue Eagles scored in the top of the first inning and never looked back: After two walks put runners on first and second, a Hunter Busque single sent Logan McAllister home. 1-0. Then a wild pitch sent Cooper Zohner home to make the score 2-0. Clover up.
The score wouldn’t budge for the next five innings. And a lot of that had to do with who was on the mound.
For Clover, left-handed pitcher and North Greenville University signee Caleb Cox was dealing: He ended up throwing a complete-game shutout, striking out 11 and allowing only three hits. And he did all of that in 90 pitches.
The left-handed pitcher — who’s fastball topped out at 87 miles per hour on Thursday — also had a great defense behind him. (In the bottom of the second, the Blue Eagles turned a groundout to the second baseman into a beautiful 6-4-3 double play that ended the inning.)
“He’s been great all year,” Wofford said of Cox. “I haven’t seen him look that good yet, though. Man, he had it going today. Fastball command. His breaking ball was sharp, being able to keep them off balance. He was as good as I’ve ever seen him pitch — and it was in a big game, in a championship game.”
Clover cleaned up in the seventh inning, scoring four runs and putting the game away for good in the process. One run was thanks to a Zohner single, which sent Waylon Root home. 3-0. A groundout then sent McAllister in. 4-0.
And then an Elijah Krause homer over the left field wall sent him and Zohner home to make it 6-0.
York’s Cooper Parks had a good day on Thursday despite his team’s loss. He ended 3-for-3 at the plate. He also pitched six innings and only allowed two runs and struck out three.
Clover saw two players have multiple base-hits: Junior designated hitter Busque went 3-for-4 and notched two runs batted in. And junior left fielder Sam Czyz went 3-for-3 and drew a walk.
“We got experience,” said Wofford, a Clover baseball alum who took over the Blue Eagle helm in May 2014. “This is a junior/senior-heavy team. We got a couple sophomores mixed in. You know, we are playing as well as I’ve seen in my eight years here. We had a couple good teams earlier on and kind of went through a tough couple years, but man, a couple of these guys have been starting two or three years on varsity.
“I say this to my coaching staff especially: The one thing you can’t coach is experience, you know? And we have guys who have 80-100 at-bats. We have guys who have logged 60-70 innings on the mound.
“So with that being said, I think you see in a game like today, that experience is paying off.”
Here’s what else happened on the baseball and softball diamonds in York, Chester and Lancaster counties this week.
Baseball scores
Monday
Fort Mill 12, Richland Northeast 0
Gray Collegiate 8, Nation Ford 5
Indian Land 13, Lancaster 4
Catawba Ridge 7, West Ashley 4
Lewisville 14, Williamston (NY) 0
Tuesday
Fort Mill 3, Cardinal Newman 1
Clover 7, South Pointe 2
Lincoln Charter 12, Rock Hill 8
Northwestern 16, Uwharrie 1
Nation Ford 6, Eastside 2
Catawba Ridge 8, Randleman (NC) 3
York 2, Fox Creek 0
Andrew Jackson 8, Buford 2
Wednesday
Clover 12, Northwestern 4
Rock Hill 6, Uwharrie 5 (8)
Fort Mill 1, Gilbert 0
Nation Ford 10, Miller (NC) 3
Fox Creek 8, South Pointe 7 (8)
York 5, Lincoln Charter 4
Indian Land 1, Lancaster 0
Summerville 9, Catawba Ridge 2
Wooster (OH) 12, Lewisville 1
Thursday
Clover 6, York 0
AC Flora 2, Nation Ford 1
Fox Creek 10, Rock Hill 5
Northwestern 12, Lincoln Charter 4
Catawba Ridge 13, Nansemond River (VA)
Rock Hill 5, Ridge View 1
South Pointe 5, Uwharrie 1
Lancaster 9, Indian Land 5
Region Standings
Region 3-5A: 1. Clover 8-1/18-2; 2. Boiling Springs 3-2/11-5; 3. Nation Ford 4-5/6-11; 4. Gaffney 2-4/4-13; 5. Fort Mill 1-6/13-5.
Region 4-5A: 1. Blythewood 8-0/19-1; 2. Spring Valley 7-4/10-8; 3. Rock Hill 4-5/7-8; 4. Northwestern 3-5/8-8; 5. Ridge View 0-8/1-12.
Region 3-4A: 1. Catawba Ridge 10-2/17-5; 2. York 5-3/9-9; 3. Indian Land 6-6/10-9; 4. Lancaster 3-8/6-12; 5. South Pointe 2-7/5-11.
Region 4-3A: 1. Mid-Carolina 4-0/9-4; 2. Chester 3-1/5-5; 3. Fairfield Central 2-3/5-5; 4. Lower Richland 2-3/4-6; 5. Keenan 0-4/2-6.
Region 4-2A: 1. Andrew Jackson 6-0/16-1; 2. Chesterfield 8-3/14-4; 3. Buford 6-3/11-6; 4. North Central 4-5/6-7; 5. Cheraw 1-2/5-7; 6. York Prep 0-6/2-7; 7. Pageland Central 0-6/0-9.
Region 2-1A: 1. Lewisville 6-0/8-9; 2. McBee 4-2/6-12; 3. Great Falls 2-4/3-9; 4. CA Johnson 0-6/0-8.
Softball scores
Monday
Clover 9, Berkley 8
Fort LeBoeuf 5, Lewisville 3
Buford 5, Lancaster 2
Tuesday
Berkley 2, Clover 1
Horseheads 14, Lewisville 1
Wednesday
South Range 14, Lewisville 0
Region Standings
Region 3-5A: 1. Clover 4-1/12-4; 2. Fort Mill 3-1/7-5; 3. Nation Ford 2-3/8-8; 4. Gaffney 2-3/3-8; 5. Boiling Springs 1-4/10-7.
Region 4-5A: 1. Blythewood 5-0/11-4; 2. Spring Valley 3-1/9-8; 3. Ridge View 2-2/9-3; 4. Rock Hill 1-3/4-13; 5. Northwestern 0-5/0-6.
Region 3-4A: 1. Catawba Ridge 5-1/16-2; 2. Lancaster 5-1/14-5; 3. York 2-4/6-4; 4. Indian Land 2-4/4-10; 5. South Pointe 0-4/0-7.
Region 4-3A: 1. Chester 3-1/4-4; 2. Mid-Carolina 1-1/3-5; 3. Lower Richland 1-2/1-7; 4. Fairfield Central 1-2/2-2.
Region 4-2A: 1. Buford 9-0/12-4; 2. Andrew Jackson 3-2/9-5; 3. Cheraw 3-3/4-6; 4. Chesterfield 1-3/1-6; 5. North Central 0-4/1-9; 6, Pageland Central 0-4/0–9.
Region 2-1A: 1. Lewisville 8-0/15-7; 2. McBee 2-2/2-4; 3. Great Falls 4-4/4-5; 4. CA Johnson 1-4/1-4; 5. Midlands Stem 0-5/0-5.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 6:15 PM.
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