South Pointe shuts down Nation Ford 2-0 in Wheels Invitational
South Pointe Stallions’ pitcher Spencer Bala threw a complete game 2-0 shutout over Nation Ford to open the 2016 Wheels baseball tournament.
Despite hosting the game, South Pointe batted first and was listed as the visitors in kicking off the tourney. Leadoff hitter Jake Kure singled to start the game off and would later score on a sacrifice by Bala to give the Stallions an early lead.
“The turning point was us getting on the board early,” said Stallions’ head coach Joel Taylor. “Scoring early was big for us.”
Nation Ford got its first hit of the game in the second inning with a single from catcher Nick Hoffman to get things started for the Falcons. Outfielder Timmy Lehman would move Hoffman to second with a single of his own, but both would be left stranded to end the inning.
Nation Ford started the bottom of the third inning off with a single from Jordan Helms, but then ended things rather quickly with a double play two batters later and unable to score during the inning.
Falcons’ pitcher Evan Lammers had a good fourth inning striking out the side for Nation Ford, however, the momentum failed to follow them in the bottom half of the inning.
Nation Ford allowed a walk to Kurn to start the fifth inning and an error pushed him to third to put runners on the corners for South Pointe. However, Kurn would get thrown out at home in a double steal attempt.
Nation Ford brought in Carter McCrain to pitch to open the sixth inning. Trey Prince would hit a bloop single for South Pointe and then steal second, but again, the Stallions couldn’t score an insurance run. Lammers pitched well for Nation Ford allowing just three hits in five innings of work, while striking out five and walking three.
“Evan battled for us and gave us a chance to win,” said Nation Ford head coach Stas Swerdzewski. “We have just been struggling getting big hits. It is a mental approach and that is what we need to improve on.”
Critical
South Pointe again threatened in the second inning as two men got on with two outs with Chris Hutto and Dez Good reaching base. Kurn would then single in Hutto to extend the lead for the Stallions.
Star contributions
Bala allowed just three hits and threw just 73 pitches for South Pointe. He walked three and struck out two in going the distance. Nation Ford had three hitters get a hit each and Kurn led the Stallions with two hits.
Overheard
Coming off a pretty good performance against Northwestern recently, Taylor said Bala is hitting his stride.
“Bala did a great job for us,” Taylor said. “He is throwing the ball real well.”
Box score
South Pointe 2, Nation Ford 0
South Pointe | 110 | 000 | 0 | - | 2 | 4 | 0 |
Nation Ford | 000 | 000 | 0 | - | 0 | 3 | 1 |
Spencer Bala and Drew Bodiford (SP), Evan Lammers, Carter McCain (6), Joseph Wyatt (7) and Nick Hoffman (NF). LOB – South Pointe 6, Nation Ford 5. Leading hitters – Jake Kurn 2-3 (SP).
Records
South Pointe 11-4, Nation Ford 7-7.
On deck
Nation Ford plays at Rock Hill High tomorrow against St. Vincent Pallotti and South Pointe plays at home tomorrow against Rock Hill High in day two of the Wheels baseball tournament.
This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 12:19 PM with the headline "South Pointe shuts down Nation Ford 2-0 in Wheels Invitational."