Rock Hill Post 34 marches on in American Legion baseball playoffs
Rock Hill Post 34 held off Greer Post 115 for a 10-7 win Wednesday night that saw Rock Hill win the two team’s American Legion baseball first round playoff series, 3-0.
The win added the added value of awarding Rock Hill several extra days off. A bit banged up injury-wise, Post 34 will face the winner of the Greenwood-Clover series in the second round.
“Huge, huge,” said Rock Hill coach Mike Scott, whose team is missing powerful hitter Trent Autry with a knee injury and may have lost catcher Devante Hayden to an ankle injury Wednesday night. “Couple guys are injured so we get the rest for them, our pitchers get the time off and we’re just going into it really positive now. Really good win.”
Rock Hill scored 25 runs in the three games, and Dupree Hart particularly battered the ball. After hitting a pair of home runs in the team’s 8-0 win Tuesday night - in which Josh Alley also homered and pitched a complete game for the win - Hart followed with a pair of doubles, a single and a walk from the leadoff spot.
“I’ve been seeing the ball pretty good,” said Hart, adding that he’s been hitting the cages at Northwestern High School regularly throughout the summer. “I’m starting to find my swing.”
Scott felt his team’s production at the plate stemmed from Alley’s grand slam that won Game 1 in dramatic fashion on Monday night. Hart - who is honoring his commitment to play baseball at College of Charleston despite former coach Monte Lee leaving for Clemson - concurred with Scott on Alley’s big hit.
“Yes sir, that really sparked us,” he said before meeting the rest of the team for post-game McDonald’s. “Yesterday we hit the ball good, today we came out and hit it good and I hope it just keeps carrying on.”
Four runs in the second inning put Rock Hill in front, but Greer reclaimed the lead with five runs in the third inning, all coming with two outs. RBI singles from Sean McDermott and A.J. Friedholm and a two-run single from Taylor Patterson inflicted the damage on Post 34 starter Caleb Hamilton.
Will Reid scored on Cameron Smith’s sacrifice fly to tie the score 5 all in the third, before three runs in the fifth frame put Rock Hill in front for good. Hart walked and Hamilton pushed him over with a bunt single. Reid’s RBI double and Alley’s two-run single made it 8-5 to the hosts.
A throwing error with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth grew Post 34’s lead to 10-5 and made certain that - despite two Greer runs in the top of the ninth - that Rock Hill would be playing American Legion baseball further into July.
Scoring
Greer;005;000;002- 7;8;3
Rock Hill;041;030;02x- 10;11;2
WP- Cameron Smith; LP- Adam Acevedo. S- Will Chitwood.
Leading hitters: Greer- A.J. Friedholm 1-2, RBI; Taylor Patterson 2-5, 3 RBI; Rock Hill- Dupree Hart 3-4, 2 RBI, 2 2Bs; Will Reid 3-5, RBI, 2B; Josh Alley 2-4, 2 RBI; Devante Hayden 1-1, RBI, BB.
Records: Greer 17-13; Rock Hill 10-9.
This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Rock Hill Post 34 marches on in American Legion baseball playoffs."